I was wondering what the advantages of keeping your collection in one of the manufactured coin books (Dansco .. etc) Vs just in 2X2's? The press in types don't appear to be so safe, and how are the plastic slide cover types? What are the expert thoughts? Should I get a "book" or stay with 2X2's?
2 X 2's are okay, but if you like the look of completing a collection, get an album. For albums, I prefer Dansco. The Whitman's are okay, but for some (like the Barber Quarters) the coins can fall into the center. Just be careful and don't push the coin in by hand.
I like the Dansco albums and I have my BU Franklin half, BU Roosevelt silver dime collections in them. Something I learned from the cointalk posts is to be very careful when sliding the plastic cover over the coins As it can leave hairline scratches on the surface of the coins, which could really hurt the grade of a high end coin. I'm close to completing a Walking Liberty short set (41-47) and if I decide to put them in a Dansco I will Insert the whole set at one time, thereby sliding the plastic over the coins one time only.
Another thought, when in doubt, push the coins further in, you will rarely move the back slide and it is better to rest the coin on that one, than take a chance and scratch the obverse.
Seeker---I've just got to ask.....what does the number 1576 mean in your thread title?? I can't decide what it means so I thought I would just ask. I use many types of way to store my coins---I'm starting to use Dansco for my Washington Quarter set---what part of it is raw that is----but on sets like my PF66 Franklin set all of them are slabbed. Speedy
Hey Speedy, I have asked so many newbie questions to annoy you guys with I lost track on how many. I thought 1,576 must be close to the number. (okay, maybe not THAT many, but give it time!) Thanks all for the posts!
You don't annoy anyone!!!....we love to have our minds picked because alot of the time we have to hunt to get the answer and we learn something new ourselves!! Speedy
I use the Whitman Classic Albums. Not necessarily due to a quality but mostly dueto availability. It appears that in the Midwest Whitman materials are more prevelant. Also, I just like the way coins stand out with a blue background. For some reason the Dasco Brown makes me think of OLD. Possibly a relationship with cars where brown cars used to always be associated with elderly people. Blue cars usually depect casual and red is associated with hot, young people. At coin shows lately Dansco Albums are becoming more common although at all coin stores in the area it is still Whitman. However, back to the question. 2x2's can have the advantage of being able to write things on the 2x2 such as date, year purchased, cost, etc whereas in an album that is not normally done. Albums look better for show but if you are not going to display your coins, then putting them in 2x2's may be advantageous. Once a coin is put into a 2x2 the chances of injury to the coin is far less than in an album. Hoever, contray to that I once ran a screwdriver across the face of a coin in a 2x2 trying to remove the staples. Plastic pages of notebook size with 3 ringed binder holes can be purchased for the 2x2's and then put into a 3 ringed binder. The pages can be arranged to be the same as an album and the pages can be added and removed a lot more simply than a Whitman, Dansco, Littleton, etc Album. With this system you do not have to worry about some manufacturer telling you what coin goes where. I basically use both systems and a few others. The choice is yours. Good luck.
I have 2X2's, Single coins in airtites, Whitman blue folders, Whitman Classic Albums, Dansco Albums and 3 ring notebooks with 20 slot pages for the 2X2's. Out of all those methods I like the Dansco best. For a real high quality looking collection I prefer the Dansco. I just prefer the way it looks. Only, the way I insert the coins is to slide the back plastic slide out and leave the front one in place. That way if anything gets damaged it will be the reverse of the coin or the back plastic slide. However, no matter what you do, sometimes the slides get goobered up, scratched. Then I'll juggle some around to put the bad ones in a less noticible place. I asked around and nobody sells just the slides themselves. I made some homemade ones out of plastic book report covers. For my Washington quarters Dansco I bought two spare pages just to get the slides. For my Whitman Mercury Dime Album I bought a second hand album for $1.00 and removed the good slides. And another thing I don't care for is all the excess specks of cardboard floating around with a new Dansco. So I take a vacuum cleaner hose and vac carefully to remove the junk scraps Dansco didn't take the time to get rid of.
