Irish Coin Book

Itsdacraic

Do you know if there any books/albums out there that help you collect old Irish coins? Something with the name/image of the coin, and then a pouch for you to put it in?

Thanks

DMcL1971

Three companies produced folders specifically for collecting the pre-decimal coins (1928 -1969).
These are actual folders that have heavy card pages in to which you can press the coins.
Whitman publishing produced a set of eight albums. One for each of the denominations for 1928-1968 coins.
Dansco also produced a set of three albums.
ICC (International Coins and Currency) also produced a set of three albums.

I am not aware of any for collecting decimals (1971 -2001).

If you are looking for information on what coins actually exist, the the best place to go is http://www.irishcoinage.com/ that will show you all the different coins and mintages.


If you are looking to store your collection I wouldn't recommend the folders I mentioned above as they are very specific, bulky and hard to find. I would instead recommend putting your coins in 50mm X 50mm cardboard coin holders. Putting those in plastic sheets and storing them in a binder. Below are links to examples of the kind of products I am talking about.


There are many manufacturers of album based collection and storage systems. The idea basically, is that you choose an album size (A4, Foolscap, A5 etc.), into this album you can then insert various styles of sheets for storing your items. As an example here is a link to the website of one manufacturer called 'Leuchtturm' or 'Lighthouse'.

http://www.leuchtturm.com/epages/leu...E_2258/DE_2261

This page shows their Grande system which stores things in an A4 size binder (there are other systems for bigger and smaller binders). You can choose which colour binder you want and then you choose what type of sheets you want to put in the binder. The sheets are made of archive quality plastic, this means they do not chemically react in anyway with the paper stored in them.

Depending on the size of the items, you might try different page layouts. There are dozens of different page layouts for storing flat items from flat A4 size down to storing rows of stamps and individual coins. There are even sheets for storing thicker things like coin capsules and slabs.
Examples and product codes of pages for the Grande system:

20 pockets per page 324851 (Designed for holding coins in 2 inch square cardboard holders)

1 pocket per page 321709 (One single A4 size document)

2 pockets per page 308439 (Two A5 size documents)

3 pockets per page 305160 (Maybe for storing banknotes)

8 rows per page 329179 (Maybe for storing rows of stamps)

35 2 Euro coins in their capsules 325214

As you will see in the link there are dozens of different page layouts. The pages are also available in 'clear' where you can see through the page so the item is visible front and back and 'black' where the front is clear but the back is black, so you can only see one side of the item. The pages are usually sold in packs of 5 pages.

I would recommend using a website like this to decide what you want and then go on to eBay to find the binders and sheets using the product codes or descriptions as they can often be found cheaper through eBay.

Itsdacraic

Wow, thanks for that excellent response.
Exactly what I was looking for.

hexosan

Looking at the matrix cardboard holders: staples or self adhesive ?? What's your preference.

DMcL1971

I use the self adhesive ones myself. I am always paranoid that if I ever had to remove the coin from the holder I might scrape it on a staple. I am inclined to think that the self adhesive may also provide better protection against dust or moisture getting in.

hexosan

think I'm going to go with the grande folders and the 20 pocket pages for my pre-decimal & decimal coins. About time i sorted it all out.

DMcL1971

hexosan wrote: »

think I'm going to go with the grande folders and the 20 pocket pages for my pre-decimal & decimal coins. About time i sorted it all out.

That is what I use. I think they look great.

Because of the size of the binders, the postage costs can be quite high. If you are buying binders, sheets and coin holders, it might be a good idea to use www.leuchtturm.com or www.prophila.com as they both have a flat fee of €15 for shipping to Ireland, so might be best to buy everything you need in one go. I have used them both in the past and had no problems.

If you are just buying smaller stuff like additional sheets or coin holders you can usually get them on eBay at a more reasonable shipping rate.

Blade

hexosan wrote: »

think I'm going to go with the grande folders and the 20 pocket pages for my pre-decimal & decimal coins. About time i sorted it all out.

I've been meaning to buy this range of albums for a long time myself, but just never got around to it. The ones I've been looking at are the Optima Classic range though. My understanding is that the 'Grande' folders are way too big for coins and more designed for lighter things like postcard, first day covers etc. I talked to a dealer at a coin fair who was selling them and he showed them both to me, he said the same thing "imagine this big album full of coins, just way too heavy". I think the Grande holds way more than just 20 pages. If you saw the size of the Grande in your hand you'd probably feel the same.

hexosan

I'll have a look at the optima

Blade

hexosan wrote: »

I'll have a look at the optima

"Optima Classic" range, there might be other Optima's.

DMcL1971

I have just had a look at the Grande that I have here. It is A4 in size but the slipcase and the binder are both pretty sturdy, so though the whole thing is 7cm thick sitting on the shelf, the actual rings in the binder are only 3cm diameter. According to the Lighthouse brochure it can hold up to 60 sheets but presumably these are sheet for holding paper goods. I can fit 16 of the sheets (full of coins, decimal and Euro) that each hold 20 of the 50x50 coin holders. So that is about 320 coins. So you could probably fit all the decimal and pre-decimal coins in one binder.

I don't have an Optima but judging by the info in the lighthouse brochure the Optima slipcase only seems to be 1 cm thinner so would probably hold a few less pages. Its sheets for 50x50 coin holders only hold 12 coins each. At a guess if it holds 14 sheets with 12 coin holders each that would be 168 coins.

Optima Classic is a standard binder and slipcase
Optima Signum is a binder with a removal label space on the spine
Optima Gigant is a much thicker binder.

From the Lighthouse website you can download their brochure which shows all the options. I was torn between the Optima and Grande when I bought them myself.

hexosan

So having the grande would you recommend getting it. I see there's a grande and then a larger version again.

DMcL1971

I would certainly recommend the Grande, though I wouldn't go any larger. The whole Lighthouse system, be it Optima or Grande, is good quality stuff. Its not at all flimsy.

One advantage of the Optima might be that you can have different folders for different groups of coins, like decimals in one folder, pre-decimal in another, banknotes in another. Rather than having everything in one big folder.

hexosan

Is there anywhere in dublin that stocks the albums so you can see it in person.

DMcL1971

hexosan wrote: »

Is there anywhere in dublin that stocks the albums so you can see it in person.

The only place I know of is Cathedral Stamps. They used to be located off O'Connell Street but have now moved to Unit B1, KCR Industrial Estate, Kimmage , Dublin 12.

http://cathedralstampsdublin.com/

I would ring first just to make sure that they have them. I visited the shop a couple of times when it was located off O'Connell Street and they usually have a stand at the fair. I have never bought from them as I found their prices quite high.

hexosan

I was in the O'Connell street shop once a few years ago. Couldn't understand how he could find anything. Looked like the place had just been broken into and ransacked. ��

Blade

DMcL1971 wrote: »

Optima Classic is a standard binder and slipcase
Optima Signum is a binder with a removal label space on the spine
Optima Gigant is a much thicker binder.

Sorry think I might have been mixing up the Grande with the Gigant. Was probably the Gigant I was looking at that was way too big/heavy for coins.

Might go for the Signum which I think is just a Optima Classic with a label. Will need 7 or 8 albums for different categories so I could do with the labels!

owla

are there any value attached to the Whitman folders so? are they an antique within themselves? do dansko make these folders still?