Cracking them out - Collecting Moderns via Album

Obiwancanoli

OK, I admit it...

I'm probably in the minority on this forum, in that amongst my many interests, I have a desire to collect "modern" US Mint issues and display them in albums. I can appreciate that for value's sake, it may be best to leave them as they come, and I recognize that...

So, I often buy Mint products in pairs or more, because I like the idea of cracking out the coins in one of them and housing them in an album of, say, Intercept Shield quality. I've just started my first project in this regard by transferring my uncirculated 50-State quarters from a folder - where, by the way, most seemed to be toning after less than a year - to a PDSS album of museum quality. My next step is to load it with all the Proof versions of each coin, in addition to the silver proof, but I'm faced with a lack of experience in cracking out the mint capsules from the hard plastic lenses they're encased in.

Anyone have a few tips?

Next question:

Realizing this is an individual decision, does it make sense - ignoring for the moment the satisfaction of personal tastes - to do anything but leave them as they come?

I watched last Spring as many sellers on Ebay were selling 3 of the 4 Pres Proofs, with the Lincoln cut out with precision, as if with a Dremel... wondering why the lens wasn't simply opened, and the coins sold individually... shaking me head side to side, my decision to ignore such 3-out-of-4 coin auctions was instantaneous...

DieClash

Obiwan, those new U.S. Mint set capsules are a bear.

I've used box-cutters (pretty thick plastic takes alot of pressure), I've used scissors too. But I've found that ripping them appart with your bear hands and then putting the knife to them works best for me. But that glue that holds the outter packaging to the hard plastic bubble wrap is something fierce. At the end of the day it takes a combination of brute force and sharp instruments to free those coins from their mint-set tombs.

Cheers!



Kirk

erwindoc

That is the way I store my collections. I havent done it that way for the last few years since the SF coins came out. Since the mint is using the brilliant surfaces again, I will go back to busting a mint set, proof set and silver proof set for my dansco albums.

Obiwancanoli

<< <i>That is the way I store my collections. I havent done it that way for the last few years since the SF coins came out. Since the mint is using the brilliant surfaces again, I will go back to busting a mint set, proof set and silver proof set for my dansco albums. >>



But how do you /would you crack them out?

Obiwancanoli

Hmmm... update...

You all knew I'd figure it out... didn't you?

Sometimes, the best advice is no advice at all...

Necessity IS the mother of invention, isn't she?

Happy New Year. Really.

KiltedOne

Heck, I have problems opening the tape on the shipping box from the mint!

As a modern collector, I do the same thing. Buy one for the 'vault' and one to break open and put into an album.

I usually am able to slide a thin blade from a small pocket knife into the seam at a corner, and slowly work it around the lens until it pops off.

Obiwancanoli

<< <i>Heck, I have problems opening the tape on the shipping box from the mint!

As a modern collector, I do the same thing. Buy one for the 'vault' and one to break open and put into an album.

I usually am able to slide a thin blade from a small pocket knife into the seam at a corner, and slowly work it around the lens until it pops off. >>



Yup, that's exactly what I did... I was surprised, frankly, at how easily it came apart...