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Posted 11/29/2010 12:57 am
I've been working on this, as well, and wanted to share my experiences since I hadn't seen many other topics about assembling a Kennedy Dansco.
I've been working on mine for about nine months. My album includes Proofs/BU only and is currently at:
1960s: 8 of 13 filled
1970s: 26 of 29 filled
1980s: 13 of 30 filled
1990s: 21 of 38 filled
2000s: 16 of 44 filled (includes 2010
My experience with the proof album has been that it requires some deep pockets because of those silver varieties. You are adding ~ 19 additional silver proofs, and some of the latter year ones sell for $15-20 at shows or ebay. The other issue is finding late year BU coins. Roll searching from banks didn't result in many hits. Mint sets have the right coins, but again these are dirt cheap in the 1970s but start to get more expensive in recent years. I've stumbled upon some good deals on ebay but it can be time consuming.
The album is extremely heavy, despite being only about half done. I think it is a great presentation piece, but I worry about the page bindings holding up over the long haul with each page supporting so much weight. I try to be careful lifting and supporting pages when browsing the album or adding coins.
The first page is the best page - the 1960s Kennedy halves in BU/proof are something to behold and I'm quite excited to have a number of these slots filled.
Oh, my other advice would be to decide up front how important cameo is. This is a bit of an issue with all years; granted, in later years, cameo proofs are much more plentiful, but there are varying degrees, and if you opt for the proof album, you may find yourself cost-cutting as best you can, which means jumping on low priced Kennedy proofs which are being sold cheap because of weak cameo. I would advise collectors to browse listings or shows for examples of strong and weak cameo Kennedy proofs to determine what's appropriate for your collection, before you start buying and inserting coins.
As for actual assembly, while I did botch a couple of coins, I had good luck inserting proofs with cotton gloves, and depressing them on the frosted obverse head, which seems fairly resistant vs. the fields. The design of the Kennedy half definitely makes it an easier coin to "push" into its slot in an album when you are dealing with proofs.
I've been working on mine for about nine months. My album includes Proofs/BU only and is currently at:
1960s: 8 of 13 filled
1970s: 26 of 29 filled
1980s: 13 of 30 filled
1990s: 21 of 38 filled
2000s: 16 of 44 filled (includes 2010
My experience with the proof album has been that it requires some deep pockets because of those silver varieties. You are adding ~ 19 additional silver proofs, and some of the latter year ones sell for $15-20 at shows or ebay. The other issue is finding late year BU coins. Roll searching from banks didn't result in many hits. Mint sets have the right coins, but again these are dirt cheap in the 1970s but start to get more expensive in recent years. I've stumbled upon some good deals on ebay but it can be time consuming.
The album is extremely heavy, despite being only about half done. I think it is a great presentation piece, but I worry about the page bindings holding up over the long haul with each page supporting so much weight. I try to be careful lifting and supporting pages when browsing the album or adding coins.
The first page is the best page - the 1960s Kennedy halves in BU/proof are something to behold and I'm quite excited to have a number of these slots filled.
Oh, my other advice would be to decide up front how important cameo is. This is a bit of an issue with all years; granted, in later years, cameo proofs are much more plentiful, but there are varying degrees, and if you opt for the proof album, you may find yourself cost-cutting as best you can, which means jumping on low priced Kennedy proofs which are being sold cheap because of weak cameo. I would advise collectors to browse listings or shows for examples of strong and weak cameo Kennedy proofs to determine what's appropriate for your collection, before you start buying and inserting coins.
As for actual assembly, while I did botch a couple of coins, I had good luck inserting proofs with cotton gloves, and depressing them on the frosted obverse head, which seems fairly resistant vs. the fields. The design of the Kennedy half definitely makes it an easier coin to "push" into its slot in an album when you are dealing with proofs.
