Moving From Album To Slab

Before I suggest a slab manufacturer, there is one consideration that pops in mind.. That's a whole lot of slabs!! I mean we're talking between 250-300 coins in the 1909-2012 Lincoln Cent series. More if you include the Proof only years. Aside from the obvious cost of all the slabs and add enough albums or boxes to store them in Have you considered the amount of space 300+/- slabs require? Just sorting by date or viewing that many slabs sounds daunting, at least to me.

BTW: I have 2 1909-2012 set's I have been working on on/off for about 30 years. One ranges from G to proof (missing Key dates), and the other I am working on is an all red BU Lincoln set. It is complete from about 1936 to 2012 and some scattered dates from 1909-1935. I started that one several years ago and quickly realized I would eventually paint myself into a corner (both with time and money), trying to acquire some of the earlier dates would cost a kings ransom. So if I ever hope to complete the set and make the set look somewhat uniform I can not set the bar so high on grade. Some of the early years will have to taper down to AU, EF and some keys will just have to be what ever I can afford. I do plan on having slabbed cents not because of grade but for authenticity and I will either crack them out or just leave em slabbed. But for me nothing beats the convenience of having my sets in one easy to view and store album.

Its actually not to bad. You can get lighthouse binders (or use a normal 3 ring binder) and get the light house pages that are made specifically for slabs. I have all PCGS in mine and they fit great. You can fit 9 on a page and 54 in an album. 300 slabs would still take up some room but could be easily viewed.

http://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/cer...coin-albums/

I personally use the larger Lighthouse binders for my slabbed coins. I only slab those coins that are destined to my heirs. Two words of caution...they are expensive and are a dead giveaway to a burglar there might be come thing expensive inside. They do look good on your book shelf though.

I would recommend them for short collections though. As Harry said, 300 slabbed cent coins would take, depending on varieties, at least 17 albums. At 37 bucks a pop...that's a lot of popping!

I put my two son's collections of Ike's, Morgan's, Franklin's, and Peace dollars into them and they look great. Gave the first Ike collection to my youngest son for his birthday this year. He said he almost wet his pants when he opened the box at his party. What more could a father ask for!

Thanks for all the feedback. I will slab all of the coins in my existing collection (1941-2012) but slowly, focusing on the older dates first or the really high MS grades.
The 1909 through 1940 coins, which I still have to purchase over time will almost be 100% slabbed coins from a TPG firm because I feel better buying these vs. raw coins. As most of them will already come slabbed, no need to invest in generic slabs.
As far as storage, I like the look of albums but the space factor/security are issues for me. I think 8 boxes with 300 coins would take up less space than 6 or more albums. I'm going to do some measurements because I would really like to get these coins into a safe. 8 boxes seems to be an easy fit.
Once again, thanks for all of the comments. Very much appreciated.

I like that idea. I've been debating on this very question with my type collection. I like having the coin in hand, but cannot bring myself to cracking it out of the case for the album. I thought of photocopying the slabbed coin for the album, but that does not seem right either. I think now, I may start off with a inexpensive low grade coin in the album and then sometime upgrading to a slabbed version of a higher grade coin.

I use the Coin World Premier coin holders and like them a lot. These holder are sold on the Amos Advantage website at: http://www.amosadvantage.com/scotto...d_part_desc=

As far as slab boxes, you can get the ones they sell for these holders or you can get a blue PCGS box. I have 7 of the ones for the premier slabs.

Hope you go with these and like them as much as I do.

I switched to NGC slab boxes. The 7 boxes I said I have are not being used. I like the Premier slabs, but for boxes, the best choice is the NGC slab boxes (that is if you are going to purchase NGC slabs at some point).