What do you use as placers to fill holes in an album?

Barberian · September 16, 2022 3:33PM

I have a raw SLH collection primarily housed in a Dansco album. As I've progressed with the series, I've purchased more and more TP graded coins and have submitted my better coins for grading. To indicate a particular date coin is elsewhere in a TPG slab, I put a circulated classic commemorative that I like such as a Columbian or Oregon half dollar in the slot. I do the same for the 1847/6, "1866 No motto" (unique!), the "1853 all kinds" (I assume this is for the ultra-rare 'no arrows' examples), and the 78-S. I leave the slots empty for the coins that I hope to acquire for the set. I might even fill those slots someday with blast white Kennedy halves, though.

The last 16 unmarked slots on the last page are filled with duplicate SLHs and circulated classic commemoratives (my two main sets). As more and more coins are submitted for grading, I'm going to have to buy a few more Columbian 'fillers'. Does anyone do something similar to indicate that the coin is elsewhere in your collection and to fill the empty slot?

Here's an old photo of the last page of my SLH Dansco. My 1890 is in a PCGS holder. Instead of a Columbian in the 1890 slot, I have a duplicate 1843 in this old photo.

jesbroken · September 16, 2022 3:42PM

I use copper planchets for my fillers. I see qtr silver planchet for sale on ebay. Justa thought.
Jim

braddick · September 16, 2022 3:44PM

I'm a purist. I leave them blank.
I DO like your choice of circulated Commemoratives, though!
Totally neat-looking coins.

yosclimber · September 16, 2022 3:58PM

A piece of paper with the slab grade and cert # works, too.

3stars · September 16, 2022 4:07PM

For my merc set I used a regular 16 instead of a 16D since the obverses look the same

Broadstruck · September 16, 2022 4:11PM

Blank makes more sense as the money spent on spacers could fill a few more holes.

Barberian · September 16, 2022 4:17PM

@braddick said:
I'm a purist. I leave them blank.
I DO like your choice of circulated Commemoratives, though!
Totally neat-looking coins.

Wasted space, IMO. I should add that I do this because I'm cheap, too.

Can you tell I like Lincolns? I'm still looking for a decent circulated Bridgeport, Spanish Trail, and Cincinnati.

Raybob15239 · September 16, 2022 4:18PM

I need two Morgans to complete my set, the 94P and the 93S. I have some examples from the Shanghai mint filling those holes. As for the 95P, I have a “tribute” proof.

nwcoast · September 16, 2022 4:28PM

For my Buffalo Dansco, I use lower grade coins for the spots held by slabbed higher grade issues.
For my Morgan Dansco books I’ve printed sized photos sized 1:1 to the coins, trimmed and inserted the circular photos into the spots. Accompanying them are reduced size PCGS label photos designating the date/mm and grade. It works for me.

MasonG · September 16, 2022 4:30PM

I put coins in with the reverse showing for the pieces I don't need, but the album makers think I do.

Barberian · September 16, 2022 5:00PM

@Broadstruck said:
Blank makes more sense as the money spent on spacers could fill a few more holes.

I like Columbians and almost all were purchased for under $15. Slots for coins that are personally attainable, but I don't have in my collection yet are left blank.

IMO, an extra "1866" slot (presumably for the 66-P NM) deserves a space filler. What was Dansco thinking by adding an additional "1866" slot for a unique non-regular issue?

hfjacinto · September 16, 2022 5:16PM

There is never any wasted space. Its up to you to fill it how you want

messydesk · September 16, 2022 5:34PM

I think my approach for representing a coin in an album that was elsewhere in my collection would be to use a blank planchet and then print out a photo of the coin and put it in a Dansco baseball card page (yes, these exist) in the back of my album.

What to do with the unlabeled holes at the end of the album is situational. The four shown in the Buffalo nickel album I would use to show the two different reverses and two hobo nickels. For other albums I might do varieties or proofs or just continue with the next series.

124Spider · September 16, 2022 5:43PM

I don't like holes that don't represent an actual hole in the collection, so I fill them as follows:

Lincoln cents--filled with common date IHC (only three of them in my case, since 1955 DDO and 1972 DDO are not slots in my Dansco album); I liked having a good excuse to buy a few IHC.
Buffalo nickels--filled with Jefferson nickels in AU condition; I thought about getting older nickels to do the job, but there are too many slots to fill for me to want to spend that kind of money.
Mercury dimes--filled with AU/Unc silver Roosevelt dimes.
Standing Liberty quarters--Filled with AU/Unc silver Washington quarters (I hoarded silver coins in 1964-1970, to the extent an impecunious kid could do so, so I have an extensive supply of attractive silver Washington quarters).
Walking Liberty half dollars--Filled with AU/Unc silver Kennedy half dollars (see comment above).
Morgan dollars--filled with AU/Unc Peace dollars (not a huge premium over silver melt value in cost, and I love them).

braddick · September 16, 2022 6:46PM

@Barberian said:

@braddick said:
I'm a purist. I leave them blank.
I DO like your choice of circulated Commemoratives, though!
Totally neat-looking coins.

Wasted space, IMO. I should add that I do this because I'm cheap, too.

Can you tell I like Lincolns? I'm still looking for a decent circulated Bridgeport, Spanish Trail, and Cincinnati.

So cool.
Here's mine!

OAKSTAR · September 16, 2022 7:20PM

Here's one example of what I use.

Mr_Spud · September 17, 2022 5:29AM

I use another coin of the same denomination that has a similar grade/appearance as the coins around it. I use the same date but different mintmark if applicable. I like the first impression eye appeal of a matching set in an album and I know I have a slabbed version of the key dates elsewhere. To me, it ruins the eye appeal of the set if you leave a hole empty or a coin from another series or an engraved slug

BillJones · September 17, 2022 5:37AM

One time I made a disk of paper with “RARE” written on it to fill the hole for the 1949-S quarter. That’s really rare because it doesn’t exist. It was part of a three piece set of Capital Plastics Proof coin holders that I used to house a 1949 year set.

When I was in high school, in the 1873 open and closed 3 varieties of the Indian Cent. I stuck one of the coins in the “1856 Flying Eagle Cent” hole in the Library of Coins album I used. It confused some people.

The_Dinosaur_Man · September 17, 2022 7:32AM

A few months ago, I built a custom Buffalo Nickel album for a friend who wanted additional varieties but no blank spaces. It was a neat idea on his part.