The Custom Album Thread - Non-Round Coin Albums Added [Updated April 15th, 2026]

The_Dinosaur_Man

About This Thread

This thread will be dedicated to the handcrafted albums I have been making since the 2020-2021 period. It is my intent to share newly crafted albums here, along with articles, podcasts, or videos talking about the albums. Related projects may also be posted and public requests can be made in the comments.

If you have ordered or received one of my albums, you are welcome to share it in this thread as well.

Due to the fact that I am among the few individuals making such products, my production methods are private and are not up for discussion.

A Brief History of the Albums

This whole project began with a singular quest to have an album for Seated Liberty Dimes, a venture that I spent three years on prior to the eighteen-month endeavor to create my own first album:

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1066141/i-made-my-own-album-for-seated-liberty-dimes

From there I branched out, making albums for Nickel Three Cents with Proofs, Half Dimes, Bust Dimes, and Indian Head Eagles. A couple of these were inspired by fellow collectors.

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1069679/more-homemade-albums

A Proof Only Lincoln Cent album followed for my personal collection:

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1079969/homemade-albums-for-proof-lincoln-cents-and-gold#latest

More albums would come along, as well as the first serious customer requests, including orders for Large Cents, Gold Sovereigns, a Queen Victoria type set, a Newfoundland collector's set, mint-specific sets for Carson City and West Point, Innovation Dollars with Reverse Proofs, and quite a few more.

During this time period, I learned the hard way that coin diameters listed in various reference materials, particularly for World coins, are often inaccurate. As a result, new requests for world coin albums can not be completed until actual measurements made by digital calipers are obtained.

At some point I began developing a website for the albums and my photography portfolio. The website is built to allow users to choose various components of the desired album from the dates and varieties printed inside to cover designs. The programming has been a headache at times but also is most necessary to provide the service of customization. I do not believe there could have been another method outside of building the website from scratch to achieve this goal.

https://www.donahuenumismatics.com/

In October 2023, I gave a talk at the EAC Regional Meeting at the Manchester, NH show and presented the albums. The talk was later published in one of the club's regular magazine issues.

In 2024, I developed the first pocket-sized albums for smaller sets. These have proven to be much more popular than I had anticipated. Early 2025 would bear witness to the first albums produced in languages other than English.

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1114081/some-pocket-sized-albums-to-show-long-post-w-photos

In July 2025, an article about the custom albums was published in CoinWeek:
https://coinweek.com/collector-turns-passion-into-innovation-the-story-of-donahues-coin-albums/

In December 2025, I was a guest host on the American Coin & Currency podcast to talk about the albums:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s0LdPJkxiA

As of this initial post, I have created 100+ handcrafted albums.

A List of Available Albums

TEMPLATES - Fully Customizable with dates, mintmarks, varieties, etc.
-- United States
1) Half Cents
2) Large Cents
3) Indian Head Cents
4) Proof Lincoln Cents
5) Two Cent Pieces
6) Nickel Three Cents
7) Shield Nickels
8) Liberty Nickels
9) Buffalo Nickels
10) Jefferson Nickels

11) Silver Three Cents
12) Half Dimes
13) Draped Bust and Capped Bust Dime
14) Seated Liberty Dimes
15) Barber Dimes
16) Mercury Dimes
17) Roosevelt Dimes
18) Seated Liberty Quarters
19) Barber Quarters
20) Standing Liberty Quarters
21) Washington Quarters
22) Capped Bust Half Dollars
23) Seated Liberty Half Dollars
24) Barber Half Dollars
25) Walking Liberty Half Dollars
26) Franklin Half Dollars
27) Kennedy Half Dollars
28) Seated Liberty Dollars
29) Trade Dollars
30) Sacagawea Dollars
31) Native American Dollars

32) Gold Dollars
33) Liberty Head Quarter Eagles
34) Indian Head Quarter Eagles
35) Liberty Head Half Eagles
36) Indian Head Half Eagles
37) Liberty Head Eagles
38) Indian Head Eagles
39) Liberty Head Double Eagles
40) Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles

-- Australia
41) Half Pennies
42) Pennies
43) 3 Pence
44) 6 Pence
45) Shillings
46) Florins
47) Half Sovereigns
48) Sovereigns

-- British West Africa
49) Shillings

-- Fiji
50) Pennies
51) 6 Pence

-- German States, Prussia
52) 2 Mark

-- Germany, Third Reich
53) 1 Pfennig
54) 2 Pfennig
55) 5 Mark

-- Great Britain
56) Farthings
57) Half Pennies
58) Pennies
59) Silver 3 Pence
60) Brass 3 Pence
61) 6 Pence
62) Shillings
63) Half Sovereigns
64) Sovereigns

-- Ireland
65) Farthings
66) Half Pennies
67) Pennies
68) 3 Pence
69) 6 Pence
70) Shillings
71) Florins
72) Half Crowns

-- Newfoundland
73) Cents
74) 5 Cents
75) 10 Cents
76) 20 Cents & 25 Cents
77) 50 Cents

-- New Zealand
78) Half Pennies
79) Pennies
80) 3 Pence
81) 6 Pence
82) Shillings
83) Florins
84) Half Crowns

-- Switzerland
85) 1 Rappen
86) 2 Rappen
87) Half Francs
88) Francs

TYPE SETS - Select pre-organized type sets
-- United States
89) Two Cents & Nickel Three Cents
90) Gold Type
91) Carson City Mint Type Set
92) West Point Mint Type Set

-- Canada
93) Atlantic Canada Type Set

-- Great Britain
94) Queen Victoria Type Set

-- Newfoundland
95) Newfoundland Collector's Set

POCKET ALBUMS - Select pre-organized type sets in a pocket-sized album
-- United States
96) Flying Eagle Cents
97) Two Cent Pieces
98) Twenty Cent Pieces
99) West Point Mint Quarters
100) Susan B. Anthony Dollars
101) Classic Head Quarter Eagles
102) Classic Head Half Eagles
103) Gold Commemoratives
104) Copper-Nickel Cents
105) Carson City Mint Type Set
106) Charlotte Mint Type Set
107) Dahlonega Mint Type Set
108) New Orleans Mint Type Set

-- Belgian Congo
109) Pachyderm Coins

-- Canada
110) Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, & New Brunswick

-- Fiji
111) Half Pennies

-- Germany, Weimar Republic
112) 4 Reichspfennig

-- Greenland
113) Greenland Type Set

-- Hawaii
114) Hawaii Type Set (available in both English and Hawaiian)

-- Newfoundland
115) Small Cents
116) 2 Dollars

-- Puerto Rico
117) Five Coin Type Set (available in both English and Spanish)

Mr_Spud

True Craftsmanship!

The_Dinosaur_Man

I have updated the original post to include a list of available albums. I will add more as they are developed.

I also started programming a series of pages to allow for customizable year set albums. It is being set up in such a way to allow for year sets for countries other than the United States.

Morgan White

In hindsight, I should have just PM'd you instead of replying to the thread.

The_Dinosaur_Man

@Morgan White said:
Not sure if you want proofreading feedback or if that's too annoying. I did notice these errors on the template checklists.

Large cents "plain head"

1853-o No Arrows dime.

I do appreciate it, I'll get those fixed. Not sure how I got the Plain Head error, but the dime was definitely an oversight from copying and pasting most of the half dime template

The_Dinosaur_Man

Lately I've sent out two albums for Indian Head Cents and Newfoundland 50 Cents, then came down with a brief incapacitating illness. I'm still fighting some of the effects of that, though desperate to get back to normal I added five new templates just for Newfoundland:

1 Cent (Large and Small), 5 Cents, 10 Cents, 20 Cents & 25 Cents, and 50 Cents.

Next up will be some long overdue work on an Israel set, then Germany, and hopefully Canada after that.

coinkat

Well done- they remind me of my favorite US Albums- Library of Coins, those just have this old school feeling about them

jedm

I hope you get back to feeling 100% healthy soon. I am contemplating having you make a Barber quarter customized album for varieties like different mintmark placements, and design changes within the same year of mintage. It would be neat to have them displayed serially instead of at the back of the album like I do now.

The_Dinosaur_Man

Back with a small update. I have an active request for some German - Third Reich albums. Right now, I have the 1 Pfennig and 2 Pfennig all set and good to go, and the 5 Mark should be posted in the next week. I'll get to the intermediate denominations and the rest of Germany eventually.

And for fun, I added a pocket sized album for Susan B. Anthony Dollars. This is one I don't expect to sell at the price I have it listed at, the only "saving grace" would be the inclusion of the known varieties plus the 1980-S RPM listed in Cherrypicker's.

lordmarcovan

I'm really impressed.

Morgan White

I did nazi that coming.

Barberian

Finally, a nice album for Newfoundland halves. Thanks @The_Dinosaur_Man for making this excellent album for Newfy halves. This is the first page. The scan has been lightened to show the coins better. The page color is a yellow-cream color normally, but here the scan has been lightened to show the coins better. My coins fit well in the holes and the slides are fine. Cat hair is not included. Both obverses and reverses are shown because I was deciding which should be shown on the front of the album page. I'll probably post the reverse on the front.

The_Dinosaur_Man

I added the Germany Third Reich 5 Mark album as well as the Weimar Republic's 4 Reichspfennig as a pocket album.

While receiving the order for the recently listed Third Reich albums, the collector chanced upon a couple of bugs on the website that I was unaware of...

1) Email functionality is imperfect. While receiving the above order, I received no emails whatsoever. When I placed a dummy order for myself to test, my "customer" email received the order, my personal email received a copy, though the primary email which forwards emails to my personal account did not receive its copy. Myself and my tech buddy are stumped on this one.

2) "Customize" and "Review in Cart." On the page containing the Album Template Lists, if you have an album in your cart, the page should replace the "Customize" button with a "Review in Cart" button, redirecting you from the template for that album to the cart/order form. The check is performed by matching the title of the album from the header of the album page with the listing on the Template List. Herein lies two issues: if the titles don't match, the Customize button will not switch to Review in Cart. On the other hand, if the title in the cart matches multiple listings, i.e. "Pennies", then every album that has "Pennies" or "Half Pennies" will change its button from Customize to Review in Cart.

I have an idea for fixing the second problem, though my schedule over the next few days will not allow me to spend a whole lot of time addressing it. This is a priority I will be taking care of before adding any further albums, however.

Anyone within driving range of Uxbridge, MA and free this Wednesday night can visit me at a small local show at the Elks lodge in that town.

The_Dinosaur_Man

Second update for the evening. I actually fixed the second bug regarding the "Customize" and "Review in Cart" buttons. Way simpler than I expected it to be. Yay for computer programming.

Swampboy

I love my album David
Such craftsmanship
I'll enjoy it for years

The_Dinosaur_Man

Four new pocket albums were just added to the site. I'm hunkered down at work until 4am EDT while the blizzard in the Northeast moves in.

Flying Eagle Cents, a nine coin set containing the major varieties for 1857 and 1858, includes the Clashed Dies and Overdate.

Commemorative Gold, a precursor to launching a customizable set of the Classic Commemorative series. Includes options for sets with or without the $50 Pan-Pacs.

Copper-Nickel Cents, for those building a date set of the short-lived composition from 1857 to 1864.

Fiji Half Pennies, because the pocket album was easy to set up and I had both the measurement and photos ready to work with.

The_Dinosaur_Man

I recently completed two separate orders. Both were special requests, though the Israel set took much longer. I was a little wary of the Third Reich set, however making it has helped me wrap my mind around German albums as a whole in which I will be separating them into the categories of German States, Empire, Weimar Republic, Third Reich, DDR/Federal Republic, and modern era and I will be applying a similar division to certain other countries like Canada and Mexico.

The_Dinosaur_Man

I added an item counter to the website's header that tracks how many items are in the Order Form. It took me about an hour to set up.

The_Dinosaur_Man

I updated the Lincoln Cent template to include all business strikes and CPG varieties. I preserved the options for Proof only sets as well.

https://www.donahuenumismatics.com/Custom_Albums/Templates/United_States/Cents/Lincoln_Cents/template_LincolnCents.html

Mr_Spud

Quick update, I put a dent in filling the holes on page 1 of the custom Large Cent album 🌞

The_Dinosaur_Man

I made a major update to the website! I've reworked the code for the templates to allow for customizable albums with non-round coins, starting with Great Britain's Brass 3 Pence, a 12-sided coin.

The page can be found here if anyone wants to toy with it.

https://www.donahuenumismatics.com/Custom_Albums/Templates/Great_Britain/3_Pence_Brass/template_GreatBritain_3PenceBrass.html