Dansco (etc.) album question

[delta]

If a coin is a bit smaller than the slot intended for it, in an album such as Dansco, the coin will be loose and bounce around when the album or page is moved. How can that be remedied?

 

Is there anything that can be placed into the hole aside the coin to hold it securely in place? Something not harmful to the coin, and not conspicuous and ugly?

[ldhair]

I know one way. Take a slide from an old album and cut a thin strip about the thickness of the coin. Place the coin in the album and wrap the strip around the edge of the coin. Adjust the length of the strip for the best fit. It works well and it's tough to see.

[cpm9ball]

How much of a gap is there? Can you use one of the foam accent rings like they use in AirTites and trim it to fit?

 

Chris

[delta]

Hi Larry & Chris, Both of those are great suggestions, much obliged!

 

The usual gap is less than a millimeter, depending on how you arrange things, which pages you insert where, and what you're putting in, because with Dansco for example, in addition to all the album pages they make for specific coin series, they also produce pages sized by millimeters.

[cpm9ball]

Next questions:

 

Do you already have the album?

 

Was it intended to be made for this particular coin(s)?

 

If so, have you considered contacting Dansco about the problem?

 

Chris

[delta]

Next questions:Do you already have the album? Was it intended to be made for this particular coin(s)? If so, have you considered contacting Dansco about the problem? Chris

 

Hi Chris, Thanks for following up on this. Here's one of the situations relevant to my original question:

 

Supposing you wished to display your occasional various uncertified US early half dollars, up to 1839, inside a Dansco album.

 

You cannot use the Dansco album pages made for later halves, because the later halves are 30.6 mm diameter. The earlier halves average about 32.5 mm, but since they were struck without a collar, they vary in diameter.

 

Dansco makes a two volume set of albums for early halves, the set is their stock number 6151. However, the pages are pre-printed with dates, not practical nowadays when enough of the dates are so rare and expensive that even if you managed to find them, and could afford them, almost all collectible examples will be slabbed, even in the lowest grades. You'd have permanently blank holes. Also, in Dansco 6151, some individual coins won't fit, and others will be too loose, because of the differences in size.

 

Furthermore, many persons collecting early halves are looking for variants, not just the plain dates, and when they have more than one variant of a date, won't want to place coins into slots labeled with wrong dates.

 

You could take the time and effort to relabel the holes each time you add or subtract a coin, but even then they won't all fit properly, and adding a coin might require relabeling all the holes on a page.

 

Dansco makes blank MM pages, including 32 and 33 millimeters but the 32s are too small for most, and the 33s too big. In order to use say 33 mm pages to advantage, in almost all cases you'd need to find an insert of some sort to tighten up the hole.

 

Anyway, by a combination of relabeling holes, and adding inserts, might it still be practical, or should we just completely forget about Danscos for early halves?

 

There are other similar numismatic album situations. And unfortunately Dansco does not have a customer service department for answering such questions.

[James_OldeTowne]

I know one way. Take a slide from an old album and cut a thin strip about the thickness of the coin. Place the coin in the album and wrap the strip around the edge of the coin. Adjust the length of the strip for the best fit. It works well and it's tough to see.

The perfect solution that I've also had success with for some 15 years.

[cpm9ball]

Next questions:Do you already have the album? Was it intended to be made for this particular coin(s)? If so, have you considered contacting Dansco about the problem? Chris

 

Hi Chris, Thanks for following up on this. Here's one of the situations relevant to my original question:

 

Supposing you wished to display your occasional various uncertified US early half dollars, up to 1839, inside a Dansco album.

 

You cannot use the Dansco album pages made for later halves, because the later halves are 30.6 mm diameter. The earlier halves average about 32.5 mm, but since they were struck without a collar, they vary in diameter.

 

Dansco makes a two volume set of albums for early halves, the set is their stock number 6151. However, the pages are pre-printed with dates, not practical nowadays when enough of the dates are so rare and expensive that even if you managed to find them, and could afford them, almost all collectible examples will be slabbed, even in the lowest grades. You'd have permanently blank holes. Also, in Dansco 6151, some individual coins won't fit, and others will be too loose, because of the differences in size.

 

Furthermore, many persons collecting early halves are looking for variants, not just the plain dates, and when they have more than one variant of a date, won't want to place coins into slots labeled with wrong dates.

 

You could take the time and effort to relabel the holes each time you add or subtract a coin, but even then they won't all fit properly, and adding a coin might require relabeling all the holes on a page.

 

Dansco makes blank MM pages, including 32 and 33 millimeters but the 32s are too small for most, and the 33s too big. In order to use say 33 mm pages to advantage, in almost all cases you'd need to find an insert of some sort to tighten up the hole.

 

Anyway, by a combination of relabeling holes, and adding inserts, might it still be practical, or should we just completely forget about Danscos for early halves?

 

There are other similar numismatic album situations. And unfortunately Dansco does not have a customer service department for answering such questions.

 

Thanks for a more detailed reply. I don't have an answer for you, but I thought by soliciting more information, there might be others who will be able to address your problem.

 

Chris

[DWLange]

I've found a great solution to this problem. I place the coin within one half of a Kointain holder, and this gives it just enough extra width to make a firm fit in an album opening. Kointains are thin plastic shells that fit tightly around a coin and look like contact lenses. If the coin is really loose, you can use both halves. They're made of inert plastic that won't harm the coin.

[delta]

Hey DWLange, That's a super suggestion, highly appreciated, and sounds like it would work great in certain situations. My thanks to all who replied --- I'm still watching this topic in case anyone else has further ideas or comments.