How Do You Guys Store You Raw Ancients?

I´m making a coinbox for over 6.000 coins...

Mine are in 2x2 flips with attributions typed up. I keep them in coin storage boxes in my bank safe deposit box . . . at least most of the time. They come home to visit every once-and-awhile.

2x2's with labels. Bob I like that case, if I only had the room for one.

I currently store mine in archival quality coin flips which are then inserted into coin album pages for ease of access.

I like the idea of trays but knowing myself, I will end up accidentally knocking them all onto the floor!

6,000 coins! How many of those are ancients?

Much like Ron, they are all in 2x2s (with the staples flattened!!). Like Andrew, I put the coins into long red boxes. Mine are recycled boxes from player piano music rolls. I can fit well over a hundred coins per box, so there is plenty of room for me to have each box hold the coins of a different century.

2x2's with labeling is really the only way to go with ancients.
The 2x2's then go into archival quality non PVC album pages.

About 2,500 of my more valuable coins are stored / displayed in this way, ancients or not, in 12 albums.
With an album opened, up to 40 coins can be seen at once. That can't be done if they are in long x 2x2 boxes.

Museums prefer to store ancients in trays with an associated ticket stored under or alongside the coin it refers to.
Museums NEVER use slabbing.

An album page with 20 coins could weigh as much as a half pound. That will put a lot of stress on the binder holes.
For this reason, I use trade sample catalog binders with 4 rings, not 3.

There's more to this question than meets the eye (literally).





Put me in this camp, but it really depends upon what you are trying to achieve. Beauty in display of a small collection (under 1000)? - the cases and fine albums are the ticket. But they are conspicuous and scream "valuable" in a break-in. I stopped counting my ancients over a decade ago at 3000. For me it is mostly about inventory control (and at that I'm doing a poor job anyway).


I not only like to view my coins, I like to study them in changeable groups with notes attached. For this approach non-pvc 2x2 flips are the key to maximizing the portability of each coin, its notes, and its acquisition data. These are "stored" in a variety of other "media" such as 3-ring binders (pages of 20), stackable coin boxes, and cardboard storage boxes with pvc free "baggies" (especially good for outsized Roman Provincial and for silver). For my Late Roman Bronze, I have 26 binders with anywhere from 6 to 15 pages, but also more than a dozen boxes in which the notes are still in process of being written (some by hand, some electronically). When a collection gets large, coins get lost. I have numbers of duplicates I bought because I could not account for the original. It's like Christmas when they do turn up. Speaking of which, some of my coins are still in their original packaging as purchased - not a good idea, but it's too easy to lose track of purchase data otherwise. I'm not an investor, but I don't want to sacrifice the cost basis for IRS when the time comes.

The flip is the key to keeping it all together with an insert you design for your own specs.