Viewing and Storage

Reardon · Member

With all the products that are out there I am asking for help on this one, I want to be able to create a Viewable Album of Lincolns and still want the coins protected as much as they can be. I am leaning toward Intercept Shield Binders...what say the forum members..what is the best product for this?

murphy · Senior Member

I like my Dansco.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dansco-Album-7103-Lincoln-Wheat-Cents_W0QQitemZ230106331746QQcategoryZ39475QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Bob P · Site Admin

Believe it or not, vinyl flips and 20 pocket vinyl pages are a great way to store your coins in a 3- ring binder. They offer adequate protection and the binder is able to be laid flat open to observe the coins (both obverse and reverse). This also allows you quick access to them for inspection, photography or other things. Should you just want a nice display book with protection, the Dansco album is a good choice.

aballein · Veteran Member

i guess it really depends on what you are trying to view/protect. For my circ set i just use 2x2's and the vinyl sheets that hold 20 coins in a 3 ring binder. If you are wanting to store some pricier or better coins i would think intercept would be the way to go.

murphy · Senior Member

Like Bob said, flips and pages are good to store your cents. But the bad thing about vinyl that I'm finding about now is that all the cents that I put in vinyl 2x2 flips six months ago now have a milky cloud over the surface of the cent. I'm no expert on what it is but I've heard it called pvc. So now I use mylar, the Dansco to keep most of my personal collection of regular cents in. For my varieties I use 2x2 mylar fold-over flips with light cardboard inserts that I use to label each coin. And I have a box for my personal collection and several for my extras. I know they make mylar pages like Bob was talking about, which would be a good choice. You can generally find an auction for the mylar pages or 500 to 1,000 of mylar flips with rounded corners on eBay. I make my own inserts out of light yellow heavy stock paper from Office Depot. I have a template that I made for Wordpad that I use to make printed labels for each of my varieties. I then cut them into squares and insert them into the flips and stick them away in the appropiate box for storage.

Bob P · Site Admin

Murph,
If your coins are changing, then you definitely might have PVC flips. The flips and pages I use are NON-PVC and they have to say that on the package to know that they are. If yours are indeed in PVC flips or pages, I suggest you remove them ASAP.

eagames · Expert Member

If the 2x2 flips are sort of not flexable and hard they're probably good mylar ones.

The ones that look similar but are more flexable and softer are the bad pvc ones. They also seem sticky and smell like an inflatable pool raft. They put that milky junk on the coins Crying or Very sad

Acetone will get it off but be sure to rinse the acetone off.

The only bad thing about the good mylar ones is they seem to crack if you fold them a few times.

You might put the paper with the attribution on the side without the coin, some paper can also cause problems. Wink

coop · Expert Member

I use the same method as Arron uses for my RPMs and DD's. But the books I use Dansco albums for some. Whitman for others. They even have a witman albums with the sliding plastic over the coins. The problem with them is that as you slide the plastic over the coins, they may scratch the coins. The blue three fold whitmans, expose the obverse and the reverses can turn blue in them. So they should like a lose, lose choice. If I had it to do all over, I would have my Cent collection in 2 X 2's and the 3 ring pocket pages. I prefer to use the 2 X 2's as they are usuall stay in the books better. But Bob said The flips are easier to get the coin out to photo, so I only use one staple in the 2 X 2 in case I need to remove to Photo.
But Chuck uses the flips and came up with a neat idea. Using the thumbnail images of the RPMs to put in one side of the flips so you can see the variety in image on the side of the flip that the coin isn't. Kind of like what Murph does, but with an image on the variety. You could make two sides also for doubled dies with two different images.So it is a personal preference, but nice to see what others are doing as it is harder to switch later on most systems. Expecailly when you get a lot of coins in your collection.
No one mentioned air tights and slabbed coins. Neither my choice, but storage always seemed an issue with them as they don't fit into a 3 ring binder as far as I know. They may have something for them that I don't know about.

murphy · Senior Member

Bob, I have removed all my cents from the vinyl flips and they are all now in mylar ones. I did this early in the year. I was able to remove the pvc from the coins by just wiping it off using the soft side of a cloth cut from a new sweat shirt. Sometimes I get a sweat shirt for Christmas that I can "do without" lol.

Bob P · Site Admin

Good thinking Murph. As mentioned here, acetone also works well in removing PVC from your coin. Goo Gone also works. I would check your coins occasionally to make sure you got all of it off...OK?? AS far as Christmas sweat shirts..that's a good idea. My Mom used to send me sweaters every year when she was alive. I didn't have the heart to tell her they weren't quite needed in Saudi Arabia Wink

GarryN · Expert Member

I dont like the Dansco or the Littleton albums. I have my state quarters in them and they are all starting to discolor. And not in a pleasant tone. The Littleton are the worst.

Dick · Expert Member

GarryN, I have both types, and so far, mine are clean. How long have yours been in the holes? Mine have not been there that long, because They were in flips, before.
Dick

coop · Expert Member

The soft plastic square quarter tubes do the same also to the end coins. Leaves a haze on them. The hard square tubes and the clean tubes so far haven't caused a problem that I can see....yet.

Gabe · Senior Member

I have 6 packages of unnopened 2x2 flips that say vinyl, but the seller claims that they are PVC free. Does anyone know of a way to tell if flips are PVC?

Dick · Expert Member

Gabe, I don't have an answer to your question, but I dio have an idea that might work. I imagine many of you have, like me, at least a thousand, maybe even two thousand flips, that no doubt are of the "older" types, therefor risky, at best. I don't know how much the clear mylar, double holders cost, but being that they are TWO holders in one, consider putting the coins in one half, and then into the flip, with one staple, as several of us do. That way you have the info on the flip, and the coin in a mylar holder. The nice thing about the mylar, is that it fits all sizes. The flips, you know are of many sizes.
Anyone know what the mylars cost?
Dick