In my roll searching for silver, I've also put together a couple nice looking sets of Kennedy half dollars. I bought a Whitman Album to display them in. My original thoughts were that the holes would be large enough to fit the coin in and it would be held in place by the plastic slide on either side. To my dismay, the forcing and prodding necessay to get the coin into the hole has me a bit freaked. Even though I'm wearing gloves to protect from fingerprints, it almost feels like I'm knocking a grade off the coin just putting it into the album. I'm guessing given this situation that when I go to store my uncirculated coins that I'll avoid the albums and just use the slightly more expensive air tites and cases for display so as to avoid this. Is there a trick to getting them in less forcefully? Do perhaps Dansco or Intercept Shield offer a not so tight fit? Thanks for suggestions. ~Christian
I had the same problem with a partial set of Indian head cents. My thought was to get the nicer ones into a brand new album where I can see both sides of the coin. So I paid good money for a new Whitman classic album. Well it was a fiasco trying to get some of the earlier coins in there. Some of the blue paper got wrinkled and the slides scratch very easily. One coin slid out of the hole and went between the 2 sheets of cardboard. I have had good luck with "used" Whitmans but the new ones are nasty. I have had much better results with Dansco brand albums.
CPHINE this is going to look very crude but it works great for me. Just take a piece of scrap wood that will accomodate the size of your coin or close to it. Place the coin on the end of the piece and outline the coin onto it. Now carve following the outline of the coin's shape to at least the depth of the slot. Taper the sides so when you fit into the coin slot it fits snug when all the way into the slot. Now you can gently rotate the piece to enlarge to soften the sides of the slot. You know what I mean. Trial and error will get you the correct shape and fit. This crude piece of mine works great with no damage to the slot. I added magic tape over it because it is just a tiny bit smaller than what I need plus its softer than the coin slot material. I took the tape off too illustrate the carving. It took less than a half hour to get it right.
Pratice on another old album until you get it right. Then try it out on a out of the way slot on the new album. Good luck.
As an individual with over 100 Whitman Classic Albums I too have found that happens occationally. No need to make a separate tool to fix that. What I've done over the years is to keep one coin of each denomination that is of no numismatic value around. If I find tight fits in an Album I just take out the slides and use the coin of that denomination as a sort of drill. Just take a not valuable coin and put into the slot and slowly turn it until it goes through easily. Do it to all the slots on that page. After that you will find all your coins will go in easily. don't know why but I've found a lot of that with replacement pages. The ones with nothing on them direct from Whitman. Several people I know that use Dansco Albums tell me that has happened to them also and they too do as I do.
One thing that I have seen with the folder type albums is if you try to place the coin into the hole while it is on a hard surface, like a table you have a very difficult time. Try placing some thing under the album like a magazine, thin clothe or I use a piece of packaging foam. Place this material between the album and the table and than try to place the coin into the hole. For some reason the extra cushion of the softer material makes it easier to place the coins into the album.
Thanks for the responses and great ideas. It's a bit of a "phew!" moment to know I'm not the only one experiencing this! Zekeguzz, that's quite a concept. I have virtually no handyman skills to speak of though...lol. What did you use to cut the wood? Just wittle it down with some exacto knives? Using another coin first is also a great idea, though the leverage may be less than the wood contraption. (Believe me, I've got plenty of extra Kennedy's around!) Anyway, I'll try these tricks (and the magazine/softer surface idea) to finish out this album, but I'll probably try Dansco for which ever coin I decide to do next. Thanks everyone. ~Christian
You may well find Dansco and others also with the same problem. And placing on a soft surface may work to some degree but if to soft may end up bending the page. Simply honing out the slot really is the best.
Err. Well, I'll just play it by ear then. If this really is how it's gonna be, like I said, the albums will be reserved for my circulated sets and I'll just use air-tites for my uncirculated. I figure the cost is worth preserving the coin.
If you are having difficulty with a Whitman Album please call me at 1-800-852-2626 ext. 1131 and I will be glad to replace and make sure the problem is corrected. Dawn
Secure the Whitman on the sidewalk or any other hard surface. Place the coin above the desired hole. Protect it with a single sheet of TP Hit it with a hammer. That ought to do it. Seriously, my son is having the same problem as he puts together a set from my searching. I like the wood idea from above...
I'm curious. Are you working for Whitman? You stated you would replace those Albums or just those pages? Is this a free service and again, do you represent Whitman? If you work for Whitman, you should let people know so they will not suspect anything suspecious. As to hitting any coin with a hammer and/or even placing something over it is really not a good idea. May be OK if the coins are not valuable and for sure after that they never will be. Also, this is all sort of misleading if we are discusssing Folders and not Albums. Folders are the ones where you can not see the reverses. Albums are the ones where you can see both sides. Folder slots are purposely made to hold coins by pressure. The slots are tapered so that the entrance is smaller than the back part. These are OK for kids or people that really don't care about coins as a coin but just to have something. Even the glue that holds the back paper to the slotted cardboard can harm a coin if it gets wet or damp.
bobbeth87, LOL!! Just Carl, I'm refering to the albums...the ones where you can see both sides of the coin and it is sandwiched between two plastic slides. I had a folder years ago to keep the state quarters in (before I really started getting into all this), and I had the same problem with it. I figured the albums not only looked more professional, but that the "forcing" issues wouldn't be there. I thought the point of the slides was to keep the coin in place in a hole that was actually big enough for it. No such luck. I do wonder why no one makes an album where the pages are made out of non-reactive plastic and the coins really do fit perfectly into the hole and are kept there by slides. Seems that would not only be easier, but then you also wouldn't have the discoloration the is eventually caused by the cardboard in the current ones. (even if supposedly "archive quality"). Hmmm. Should I grab a patent real quick?!
What you mention is not likely to ever happen. You must realize that due to wear, many coins will fit really loosely in the slots made for a full coin. Then too many brand new coins are completely new with no wear at all so the slots are sort of made for that. They fit in tighly so they don't move around. There are numerous other problems also. Manufacturing processes always contain what is called tolerences. In some instances it is practically 0. In others it is really almost a joke. For example in medical instruments it is critical to have tolerences really small. A Steel item such as an I-Beam may have as much as + or - 1/2" for a tolerance. Due to such tolerances in manufacturing, pages for coins are mass produced and the exact sizes of those slots is probably within thier tolerances for each organization. Therefore, regardless of any possible newer invention on how to produce them, such tolerances will always be there to irritate us all. Who knows in the far distant future an Album may be so that as you lower the coin to the page, a slot will automatically open for just that coin. HMMMM. Now there is an idea.
Or maybe we can get some Star Trek transporter beams and just "zap" them into place. Oh well. Didn't realize that ware really affected the size of the coin that much. I figured that was a "top-down" process rather than an "outside-in" one. Blah. There goes my yacht dreams.
I like your idea even better than mine. Got to work on that one. As to a coin's wear, that is one of the major problems with those Folders. The main process in manufacturing those is to completely glue a sheet of paper and then lay the slotted cardboard on that. This means that the back of the slots are usually shinny due to that glue and as long as that glue is not exposed to moisture, it doesn't do much. HOWeVER, this is where kids get smart. Many coins that are worn are a little to small to stay in those slots so kids spit on the reverse of the coins so that the glue will now hold that coin in possition. Not really great for coins.
