I made my own album for Seated Liberty Dimes

The_Dinosaur_Man

I've been collecting Seated Liberty Dimes for a few years and am trying to assemble the whole date and mintmark run, plus some of the major varieties like mintmark above/below bow. I wanted an album to store them in, but with Dansco not producing and the other manufacturers not even making albums for the type, my best option was to find something used and the only one I did find over the past three years was falling apart.

Two years ago, I invested in a cutting machine to make t-shirt designs with. The machine was advertised as being able to cut up to 2mm thick with the right add-ons.

I got the idea to try making an album not long after and started investigating what materials I would need and how I would go about making each component. Knowing that the book needed to be both acid-free and PVC-free, I spent a lot of time looking for the right materials and obtaining them.

Once everything was acquired, I went about making prototype pages. The cutting machine will take designs created in Photoshop, so I was able to go back and forth with drawing a page to specific millimeter sizes, printing and cutting, and making sure the coins fit snugly. There was a lot of trial and error. Binding was another challenge.

Here is the ultimate result:

It is rough around the edges, however I am very happy with the results.

jabba

I’m extremely impressed

yosclimber

Very nice.
Judging from the vertical spacing, did you use 3 sliders per page?
You could shift the labels to add the 1875-S and 1875-CC above/below bow.
(Looks like you intended to do that based on your first paragraph, but maybe you got distracted doing all the hard work to make the album happen?)
I think you could fit in the mintages below the dates by abbreviating as 1.1m for 1.1 million, etc.

Mr_Spud

That is incredibly awesome 👍🏻

pmh1nic

Nice work! You haven't seen rough around the edges until you've my attempts at carpentry...smh.

dbldie55

Excellent work.

gumby1234

Looks awesome.

U1chicago

Well done!

Steven59

Pretty amazing job! Well done.

shortnock

Looking darnfine. Congratulations for sticking with the project.

Klif50

Very well done. Now make a 7070 Dansco style album and you can be rolling in the money.
Congratulations on a job well done.

Catbert

Looks great! So impressed with your diligence and craftsmanship.

erwindoc

Are you taking orders???

privatecoin

Awesome.

jesbroken

Amazing...congratulations on an unbelievable job.
Jim

moursund

@erwindoc said:
Are you taking orders???

Yeah! I'd like an album for my 1904 Panama coins...

braddick

A custom album for Daniel Carr Moonlight Mint items would be neat too.

GaCoinGuy

Nice! I have a design for an update to my Dansco Type Set book that will include the Lincoln Varieties from 2009 and the Jefferson Designs. What type of stock did you settle on for creating the pages?

Dave99B

Incredible! 👍

Dave

dogwood

That’s probably a $750 prototype!
👍

savitale

Wow. That's really impressive. I admire your dedication to albums! I love albums.

DisneyFan

I'm very impressed with your efforts to collect raw Liberty Seated dimes. You must also be gaining confidence in grading them. I do have a suggestion for your album. Print the date/mintmark for each coin on the reverse side of each page. Remembering which coin is which has always been my frustration with albums.

Batman23

You did a nice job. You will only refine your abilities further with additional trials. Don't forget about the 1875-S and 1875-CC In wreath and below wreath varieties on your next attempt.

DDR

I am very impressed. I wish I had those skills.

johnny9434

Nice, I like

leothelyon

Now that's dedication!

Goldbully

Awesome job.

ricko

@The_Dinosaur_Man.... Very well done. Impressive for a personal creation.... Never considered doing a 'home made' album. Cheers, RickO

lkenefic

Wow... that's a heck of a lot of work! Nicely done!!

Eldorado9

I've seen a lot of cool stuff here, but this is just damn impressive. Really amazing buddy...Well done.

OnWithTheHunt

Nice job, very impressive. Looks like the old LOC albums. Good luck on your hunt.

NumisOxide

Really nice work!

WAYNEAS

A really nice piece of craftsmanship.
The album's look is a perfect match to go with the coins.
I can see that you now have a few requests for custom albums designs.
Maybe a new market for you.
Best to you.
Wayne

FrankH

That IS impressive. However, I think I would go this route.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/265382766889?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=265382766889&targetid=1263094003346&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9032457&poi=&campaignid=14866892363&mkgroupid=129483442273&rlsatarget=pla-1263094003346&abcId=9300677&merchantid=6296724&gclid=Cj0KCQjw8p2MBhCiARIsADDUFVH1Cb4SOLQlifK7R5u6Ute7lA-OWhSEUkQ7oIG0m6CYpVtK9w5hzLMaAkrPEALw_wcB

vulcanize

Very nicely done

Like others have mentioned in the thread, you should look at starting your own line up (along with taking custom orders as well) and could really give Dansco a run for the money.

cjdilego

I think you spent a lot of time and thought about what you wanted and then did it. You will only improve as you go on from here but I think you have done an excellent job. I do not have many of the seated liberty dimes but did just purchase an 1876-CC ms63 gold cac seated liberty dime and I am very happy with it. Thank you for your pics.

csdot

Very nice!!!

Coinosaurus

Well done!

The_Dinosaur_Man

Wow! Thank you everyone for the comments! It means a lot to me!

I want to address some of the questions above, and my responses are below.

Seeing the comments about taking custom orders, if I were to go commercial about this which I would like to do, that would almost be the primary focus. The major manufacturers, including Capital, charge hundreds of dollars for a single design and, while I understand their price points, it's unfair to the collector who is trying to collect their own way. I don't want to charge over-the-top like that while also being fair to myself for the time and effort.

That being said, I've been working on some website-based software where the user would be able to design their own album. I would still print and assemble it, of course. On the site, they would have the ability to choose the coins that go on each page, where on the page, what size and even shape coins, and any text beneath the slot. This will take some time to complete.

Yes, shape of the coin will not be an issue! I tested that concept with the Bahamas 10 Cent coin and the Hong Kong 20 Cent piece.

Back on Halloween, I set up at the New Bedford Coin Show to promote the next Skinner auction. I brought the finished book with me to show to a few friends and the showrunner started sending other attendees to take a look, including a lawyer who advised me to see that the patent for the LOC albums had lapsed. I don't know how to go about that, would anyone be able to help me?

Just yesterday, I completed a custom album for Nickel Three Cent pieces. I'll post pictures later. I must admit, this was my first request and the client wanted a book for the series, including proofs, that also did not include two cent pieces or the other odd types usually bundled in.

Now for some direct responses!

@yosclimber - yes, there are three sliders per page. And I had forgotten about the above/below bow varieties until after I assembled that particular page. The next iteration will have them for sure.

@Klif50 - a 7070 type set could certainly be in the pipeline!

@erwindoc , @moursund - I would love to take orders! Building albums for foreign nations is almost unheard of.

@braddick - Doing something for the Moonlight Mint would be really cool! That's something to talk about

@GaCoinGuy - I use acid-free book boards. My cutting machine limits the total size of a cut design, however, so I won't be able to craft a newly cut page to fit into a Dansco.

@DisneyFan - I considered printed dates on the backsides of each page, but that comes with a minor logistic issue I haven't tackled yet

@ricko - thanks for the comment! the closest I saw for a homemade album in my preliminary browsing was just a customized 3-ring binder with 20 pocket pages.

Again, thank you everyone for commenting!!

Namvet69

@The_Dinosaur_Man You are a class act. Are you gonna be at the Baltimore show with your creation? Peace Roy

ricko

@The_Dinosaur_Man... Best of luck in your endeavor. I am sure there is demand for custom products like you describe. Cheers, RickO

braddick

I want nothing but success for you, and I see nothing that would impede your goals as your product is of high quality and desirable.

Collectors can have a multi-thousand dollar set of coins and are left with placing them in cheap albums (sorry, Dansco- but you still have not fixed the size openings on several coins within your 7070 Type Set album even!).

rec78

Excellent!! Looks like a Library of Coins album (LOC).