Coin Cabinet Construction

Send a PM to Nickelsearcher. His secondary hobby is woodworking, neat stuff, check him out.

http://www.finewoodcrafter.com

Plywood, high grade may work as a base layer on the bottom, but not as a surface contact.

Almost all plywood contains formaldehyde, which would be detrimental to coins. Also, almost any finishing agent could contaminate coins.

What kind of holders do you use for your coins?

I've never built anything of wood for my coins ... but do have some experience in woodworking.

Most natural timbers should be fine ... mahogany as you stated would be acceptable. Some of that lovely English Oak for which the UK is justifiably famous for would also work.

I would avoid from an abundance of caution any of the oily timbers from South America (cocobolo, rosewood, etc). I personally do not use them in my own work, despite their beauty .... I don't feel they are sustainably harvested.

As mentioned above, avoid all manufactured materials such as plywood, hardboard, etc. Again ... they might not be an issue but why the the chance.

There are a gazillion finishing options ... you can read up on the various chemicals in them. I would keep it simple and go with shellac. Once the denatured alcohol evaporates (quickly at that) you are left with a 100% natural product that will provide acceptable protection to a coin cabinet (you are not building a kitchen table after all).




I am not familiar with that term. Assume you are perhaps referring to a lining material of some sort? If so, my only caution is to avoid natural leathers as the tannic acid used in their processing is corrosive to silver. I have used ultra-suede as a leather substitute for years without any issues.

Hope that helps ... show us some photos when you are done (or along the way as well).

David

Thanks everyone for the advice.

Apologies I didn't reply sooner, it was bad timing of my post just before Hogmanay, I'm only now clearing my head!

Moxking - I have a lot of them in 2x2's, some in coin cases and many loose. It is these loose coins I'm looking to store.

Jbuck - Thanks for doing that.

Nickelsearcher - Thank you also for the detailed reply. I chose mahogany since I have a fair bit of it, although I do have some oak as well, from one of my own trees that blew down over a decade ago no less! I'd roughly planked it, so I might incorporate it somewhere. I was thinking of the plywood for the trays, but concerned about the chemicals. I'll track down something more suitable. I had a look at your website as suggested above and there are some very nice pieces on there!

Baize is the lining material, the same stuff used to cover snooker tables.

Just Carl - I hadn't considered plastic, but it might well be suitable for the trays.

If your original thought was to build with wood, I would stick with the wood.

Parklane, one of my first forays into woodworking was humidors. I was in a tobacconist in Glasgow, saw the price of the wooden boxes, sorry, humidors and suggested I'd supply him with five. They all sold! They were lined with Spanish Cedar.