Collecting, Cataloging And Displaying Canadian Pennies

I hope this is in the right forum.

I've been collecting Canadian large and small cents for some time. I have some questions about collecting that I would like opinions on.

1859 pennies are very complicated for me. I think I need a microscope with a camera to really analyze, research and catalog them. I know there is a forum for microscopes, but are there any alternatives to very expensive microscopes that will produce quality results?

My collection of small cents is pretty much complete from the late 50s on, and I'm making good progress with the older ones. Getting all the 2012 pennies cost me a fortune, but I now have them all: the 5 oz. silver, the 1/2 oz. gold plated leaves, the gold 1/25 oz., the 5 silver penny proof set, the magnetic and non-magnetic. The proof silver with gold plated leaves and the proof bronze. One question, I know it's really a bit up to me what I consider a complete set for the year, but I would like opinions if I went overboard buying the 5 oz. coin, or is that really a bullion issue? I really waffled about it and decided that if I found it at a good price I'd buy it, and I bought it just under $600 Canadian.

Another question about completeness: I know people recognize the zinc and steel pennies as collectable varieties, but I also have the proof bronze pennies. Do most collectors looking for completeness bother with the proof bronze pennies? I'll get into some of the reason for the question when I ask about albums later.

I also have all of the "modern" large cent issues (1998 proof and antiqued)and the 2011 (anniversary of the silver dollar set). Are these usually considered part of a "complete" Canadian penny collection?

Finally, I am trying to decide how to store and display my collection. For me there are a number of difficulties.
- I have coins in several different types of holders, and I'm really stuck with some of them. I have PCGS, NCG, ICCS, coin slabs like the professional services that I put the majority of my coins into, and some remain in their complete proof or test token set packaging. I am really reluctant to remove coins from proof casings in particular because with some of the sets, the pennies seem to "belong" to be displayed with the others, like the 1908-1998, 1935-2010 proof only King George V, 1911-2011 Silver dollar George V proof set. It just seems wrong to not display those sets together, because the seem special to me. So, right now I have almost all the pennies in the boxes the slab holders came in, with place-holders for the ones in proof sets saying where they are located. I suppose on option is to buy duplicate pennies and keep a separate set of proof sets. The RCM really has driven me a bit nuts with all their "special" editions, but that's the nature of collecting.

So, another question that all leads to is: I would like to put the collection into some sort of binder, but with all the graded coins from different companies, and especially all the ICCS coins I have, is there some sort of binder or album with pages that would accommodate all of those slab types. I have read about a number of album types, as well as online reviews of them, but the sales materials are very vague on how they work and if they are safe and effective for display. Ideally they should be removable for closer inspection without plastic in the way. I also can't seem to find out the dates and varieties covered in album pages with dates, varieties and common errors. I suppose I could use whatever space is available to refer to other packaging for coins in complete proof sets. I would really appreciate opinions and guidance here.

Thanks,

Jim