Slabs, Carboard And Everything Else

I would love to get my currency collection graded and my coin collection graded. I am hesitant of sending currency through the mail as it will result in damage. Coins are just to valuable to risk shipping for nothing. I will try to attend coin shows in order to get them professionally graded.

I have several slabbed coins but, like just carl says I like albums also. They look nice and labeled. Easier to find a coin that you may want to look at.

I'm in the camp of I slab everything. Now hold on....

I don't mean third party slabbing, although I have a handful of those, but rather for my coin storage I use the Coin World Premier Slabs for all of my raw coins. For me, and this is just my opinion, I like to be able to store them that way but I can still take them out if I wish.

Downfall to this is more space is needed to store them but they stack nicely.

Nothing wrong with this.

Some circular acryllic air tight holders are still small enough to slide into 2x2 album page pockets.

I have been trying to come up with a system that fits my preferences. Granted, like everyone else has stated, it really depends on how much space you want to dedicate and how "hands-on" you want to be with your collection.

In all honesty, I feel that I have a mild case of OCD, at times, which should become readily apparent. When I buy, it is a mix of raw and slabbed coins. For any raw coins, I immediately put them into a Saflip and put them into my "to be processed box". When the weekend comes, or whenever I have enough time to sit down and go over each coin, in detail, I will pull out that box and go through each coin. My process is to research for variety, grade, photograph, and catalog. Then I make the determination if I am going to send it out to a TPG or not.

In the event that I am not going to send it out to a TPG, I will usually put the coin into a Coin World Premier slab and label it before the photography point of my process. Whether I am sending out or not, I make it a point to photograph and catalog ahead of anything leaving the house. Essentially, I want to track what I paid, where I got it from, and have my paper trail in the event that something unforeseen happens (to the coin or to me).

Slabs are then bagged in a 3"x4" slab bag and, at the moment, are moved into a chipboard slab box. Each slab box also has a couple of 5 gram silica desiccant packs, for good measure - as does the box that the Saflips live in. More important for the Saflips, I reckon, although I live in a very dry climate. Low grade, fillers, or anything not "display quality" stay in the Saflip.

For long-term storage of my slabs, I am considering my options. Not to turn this thread into something else, but I do have several old library card catalogs, nearing a hundred years in age. Considering that these did a majority of their outgassing years and years ago, I had been considering 3D printing inserts to hold the slabs. But the problem is that it is a lot of wasted space in each drawer. I am considering what my options are, whether that is keeping them stored how they are, or dipping into my supply of air-dried lumber to fabricate something. Obviously there, I have my concerns and would prefer to find some incredibly old reclaimed lumber, should I want to fabricate. Like I said, though, that is a can of worms.

I do have a good inventory of new 2"x2"s in various denominations, but I generally tend to use those for shipping. No idea why, but a lot of my patterns are done out of habit and not out of logical or conscious decisions. Remember, a touch of the OCD.

@srs77 - I would be lying if I said anything other than I drool at that every time I see it and never grow tired of you posting pictures of it. It is the yard sale time of year, and my eyes are always surveying the landscape for a piece like that.