My Comparison Of Whitman, Littleton And Dansco Albums

Unlike a few of the posters on here, I'm not limited to an individual album for coin storage. I generally select an album based on the type of collection that I want to do, so in each case I may pick up a different album and I have done that. Several posters have asked about the difference and since I have the 3 majors (Whitman, Littleton and Dansco) I figured I would share my thoughts. First off I will say that each album works really well. They provide a safe place for your coins and that each company makes enough varieties that you can be selective in matching an album to your collection type, for example do you collect proofs in addition to the circulated coins...

The first picture shows the albums next to each other. The first thing you notice is that the Dansco is the largest, but thats actually deceiving, since actually the Dansco makes the most efficient use of space. Unlike the Whitman and the Littleton, the Dansco is not a binder style. It can be made tailored to the space needed. Littleton and Whitman, seem to make a few binder sizes and add the pages as needed to the folders.

The Littleton is probably the least efficient in space. There is a lot of volume not needed especially for the IHC/Small Cents album. The Whitman is smaller in size than a Dansco but it will generally be fatter. As far as quality covers, all are very nice with a slight edge going to the Whitman and Dansco.



The first album we'll look at is the Whitman, and there are several thing I like about it. The blue pages are very nice and highlight the coins. The tabs to pull out the plastic windows are very nice and the quality of the pages is also very high. Overall a very nice album. I would rate it a A- on a scale of A to F. I know some people really like the Whitmans and from using it I can understand why.




From the Whitman we go to the Littleton and there are special features of the Littleton that I really appreciate. All the windows are in an envelope and covered my tissue paper. Each album comes with very nice gloves. The edges of the pages have tabs. They are available in stock ;) and they make several that the other don't make (or I was unable to find), for example I wanted a proof album for the American Innovation Dollars and only Littleton had it, they also don't include the 1856 Flying Eagle, I'm not paying several $$$$ for a coin and didn't want a blank space, so another reason to get the littleton. While the pages are very nice, the color is kind of boring (well to me) and since they are binders the pages get stuck while moving. Overall I would give Littleton a B+ only for the reason that the pages stick while changing.




Last we go to the Dansco, which many people feel are superior and having 3 of them I agree for several reasons. The first being all albums are the same height which makes it easier to lay them in a book shelve. The Dansco's are also very well made and not in a binder style, therefore they make very efficient use of space. The brown actually heights copper coins, not so much on Silver (IMO, the Blue of the Whitman looks better for silver). The only faults I have with Dansco is that many albums aren't available and they have failed to produce updates for others. But if an Dansco is available (?) and in the series you want, you can't go wrong. Dansco get an A in my book.




So my informal rating system has the albums as:
1st Dansco
2nd Whitman
3rd Littleton

But if you are like me, you select an album to your collection, so you pick based on what you need and there is nothing wrong with that. All of the albums work really well.