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 Replies: 11 / Views: 7,434 |
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New Member
United States
5 Posts |
Hey there! I've been collecting foreign coins for a while, buying them in bulk by-the-pound lots and then sorting through them by hand. Anyone that does this knows it can get a bit out of control - there are dozens of currencies/countries, most of which have gone through currency changes in the last century which means they have multiple currencies to sort out. Now, I've got a question for anyone experienced in this area of coin collecting. I also collect silver US coins, and they're very easy to store because there's so few categories. However, I find it extremely hard to store my foreign coins. Right now I'm using hardware organizers (5x6 of small drawers inside a plastic housing), which get the job done but not to the extent I'd like. This way, all of my Great Britain coins are piled in a single small drawer. There's 20+ different coins in that one drawer.. and having 20 separate drawers for one currency seems a bit silly. Has anyone solved this problem? Maybe a custom-made form of storage to make things a bit easier? I've gotten to the point where it's just me piling coins into drawers based on currency, when I'd like to see all of the ten pence coins I have, all of the 1 peso coins, 10 peso coins, etc. I'd appreciate any suggestions! Let me know if I didn't get my question through quite clearly enough! |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
I have my 3000 sorted by country or region in food-safe Ziploc bags (with many coins in them), but of course this isn't the best way to display each coin.
Exceptionally nice or uncommon coins go in 2x2s, and the best of those go in my binder where I keep date/type sets and standout coins. Silver coins go in a smaller bag within the larger bag unless they should belong in a 2x2.
Some people put every coin they own into a 2x2 and have an elaborate binder system, which can be neat, but you'll end up spending quite a bit on 2x2s, staples, binders, and pages. For me, I don't think it's worth it when most of my coins are quite low-value.
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Moderator
 United States
14463 Posts |
 There are pages for 3-ring binders or blank coin albums to hold 2x2's or flips. Then you could have one page showing each coin type. |
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New Member
 United States
5 Posts |
Thanks for the welcome and suggestions!
When dealing with binders/pages I then run into another problem. When I say I want to sort by currency AND type of coin, I'm saying that with the fact that most of these types have nearly no value and are there purely for collection/completeness sake. (because I would never throw out a coin I've sorted from a lot) For example, I've got probably a few dozen old Mexican 50 centavos coins. Are those really worth the trouble of putting into sleeves/pages instead of just piling into a small drawer?
Maybe there's some kind of binder with page that allow more of a dumping type thing than neatness? I'm honestly not sure what exactly I want, just looking for direction :'(
P.S. Just looked at your want list Fuzzy317, I'll look through my collection and see if I can find anything to help you out :^)
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Bedrock of the Community
United Kingdom
17901 Posts |
All my low-value foreign coins are in something - mostly 2" x 2" flips or coin albums - I hope the pages don't have vinyl in them but I'm not so worried in the case of low value coins. I do keep silica gel in with them and check them regularly, and they seem to be OK (fingers crossed). For GB coins there used to be rather nice albums manufactured by a company called Bri-Lining but I don't think they make them any more.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
9376 Posts |
Welcome to the forum Shinyhound. This is the best and cheapest way that I have found, but only keep one of each coin here. The rest are stored in zip lock bags for trading. I use old A4 paper boxes, cut down to about 2 1/4 inches high. The extra sides of the boxes are cut into strips for use as separators between the rows. I have about 8000 coins stored this way on one shelf. (Just general circulated world coins, nothing of any great value). Cost = nil, apart from the 2x2s.    Steve  |
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Pillar of the Community
Thailand
1509 Posts |
I keep mine in plastic boxes (about 3"x 2.5") the kind you keep calling cards in. As many as needed per country. Then in document trays which will hold about 25 boxes. Finally the document cabinet which has 15-16 trays. I actually have two cabinets holding about 13,000 coins which is why I don't use flips!    |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1391 Posts |
Here is how I sort mine:  I have some old slide cabinets, the coin 2x2's are just the right size to fit in there. Everything is labeled and sorted by country, the by denomination, then by date. Pretty much everything is there is low value. I figure that if I am going to spend time to bother collecting coins, even if the coins are not high value my time is worth something, so the might as well be nice. |
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New Member
United States
5 Posts |
Thanks for the suggestions everyone!
thai-vic, I think yours is probably the closest to what I'm after. If I don't find anything better, the way you're storing your coins is most likely what I'm going to be doing with mine for a while. I was wondering, where do you get your plastic cases, and where would I be able to find a filing cabinet with that kind of shelving?
Thanks again for the help!
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Pillar of the Community
Thailand
1509 Posts |
The plastic boxes in bulk from a wholesaler. Maybe try to find out where printers get theirs from for business cards. I know some printers use them for their small orders. Try Google "business card boxes".
The filing cabinet from an office equipment supplier. Try Google "15 drawer filing cabinet".
Can't help with any names as I found them all here locally in Thailand so you must be able to find something similar in your nearest large town or city.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
The ideal cabinets to hold 2x2s are old card cabinets from libraries. Many of these were discarded when they threw out the old cards and replaced them with microchips. I don't know what the cost would be but a store near me has two and they are very useful for holding coins.
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Valued Member
United States
125 Posts |
All of my foreign coins are in 2x2 cardboard holders. I start by putting everything into the long, thin cardboard boxes the 2x2s come in, sorted by country and then by year. When I get to about 10 or 12 coins for one country, I put them into their own page in a large binder I have of other foreign coins. I move them out of that binder into a separate binder when I fill up more than 2 pages. It might not be the best system but it works out OK for me and makes every coin easy to find.
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Replies: 11 / Views: 7,434 |
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Posted 07/14/2014 12:10 am
