Albums?

drwebber1

Which are best (ie Dansco, Whitman, etc.)? Is it better to put a coin into an album or to use the milar folders? I have been collecting circulated 20th century coins for years as a side hobby and used Whitman folders to hold them. Now that most of the sets are almost complete, I wanted to move them to an album. Also, does anyone use a database for their coins?

jtryka

There are a lot of threads on this topic, and I prefer to use Dansco for some of the circ coins since you can easily see the obverse and reverse, but you need to be careful of the sliding plastic if you have any nice unc coins. As for a database, I keep a list of all my certified coins in an excel spreadsheet, but as for my raw coins, I have no clue what I even own anymore!

lordmarcovan

An album is really only good for circulated coins. I would usually not put an extremely valuable coin into an album, nor would I ever put proof coins into one. Some folks report problems with red UNC copper, too, though I've not had this problem.

I like Dansco, for their selection of titles, if nothing else. I use them for my Irish coins. I also used the old Dansco #7070 US Type album, because it covered the 19th and 20th centuries, and Whitman only offered a 20th century type set at the time. For environmental protection, I hear that the Intercept albums are the best, though they are almost certainly more expensive, and I don't know what titles they offer.

For my slabbed coins, I used to use the Eagle albums. I liked their pages, but next time I will buy only the pages, and not the binder, because the pages will fit into a standard 3-ring binder, and I can buy my own binder far more cheaply. You can come out a lot cheaper if you just buy the pages separately, I think. Of course, you probably weren't talking about slab albums.

Capital Plastics offers a variety of plastic frames for collections. The advantages are that these make great looking displays and probably offer better protection for the coins. The downside is that they tend to be a tad pricey for a buncha plastic, and if one is constantly adding or upgrading coins, one must unscrew the frame each time.

As to databases, I use the PCGS Set Registry for my gold coins. Not only is it fun to face other collections in friendly competition, it is a good free database and offers free images. Once again, though, that's for slabbed coins. Heritage has a "My Collection" database I used with my old type set, and I liked it. The price index attached to that sometimes was way off, but a general rule of thumb is better than nothing. It's free, and can be used for raw coins as well as certified ones.


By the way- welcome. We sure have had a lot of new members appear in the last few days!

lordmarcovan

Heritage "My Collection" database (Hope the link works)

Tootawl

For slabbed coins: Eagle albums

For raw coins: Intercept Shield albums.

Tootawl

For a database, I use an Excel sheet. True, it's not a database in the pure definition, but it does what I want it to do.