I have been reading online about Caps Albums and am starting to think they might be the solution to the storage issues I have been having. I love having my coins in airtites but find it really hard to organize and enjoy them. Threads I have read here and elsewhere seem to say really positive things about them...about the only "complaint" I have seen is they are big. I was curious to hear from anyone who has them...and the pros and cons that come with them. I am currently in the process of reorganizing my collection and think this might be a big step in the right direction.
I've got the gold type set CAPS ALBUM. It is big, but I don't mind. You can view each side of the coin easily. I plan on picking up the Caps Barber Quarter album soon. It's my favorite way to store coins other than being slabbed, or should I say protect? I'll be buying more.
They are great. They are futuristic. The only problems really are like you mentioned, the size, as well as that they are expensive. You have to buy the albums which are typically around $30 or so each then all of the capaules as most generic capsules don't fit. You need to buy CAPS capsules. Depending on the size of the issue you may need 2 or 3 albums plus all the capsules which are around $1 each if memory serves. Otherwise they are great and provide the most protection of any album for raw coins I know of.
Maybe. If they say so I guess. I was given the ASE CAPS album and I had to buy specific CAPS capsules for them as all the capsules I had didn't fit. Nor did the ogp mint capsules for proofs and burnished's. Due to the big size and having to buy extra capsules I decided to leave them in the Littleton album. Plus I like to take the toning chance anyway. If airtite brand capsules fit great!
The last time I looked Caps was selling Air-Tite brand capsules, they don't have their own capsules. I use my own Air-Tites, which fit tight and are perfect.
Maybe that's what I was looking at just sold "with" them then. Still, the price was around $30 for around 30 of them if I remember right. Point is that they are way more expensive than a regular album. Which I'm not saying is a bad thing, especially for the high level of protection CAPS albums brag. It's just one of the 2 negatives (bulky size being the other) these albums have. Well 3 negatives. The third, for me anyway, is a much less likelihood of the coins developing some nice color. That's why I use litteleton albums for the most part. They are known to impart some wicked color, especially on 999 silver
Ok. That answers my questions. I think I'm going to look into one for my German coins. I don't have a way to store them that I like.
IMO, if you want an album that offers excellent protection for raw coins, you only have a few choices: CAPS albums Coin World Premier / Everslabs + certified coin album Intercept All three are going to be expensive. The first two will be rather bulky due to the nature of the thing. CAPS is a fine choice, especially if you've already got the coins in Air-Tites. There are a couple other Air-Tite storage options, but they don't easily let you see the coins.
CAPS/Air-Tite gives you the advantage of leveraging the foam rings to house coins of varying diameter, which is big especially if you're looking to include foreign issues. Another, less aesthetic possibility - forgive me if I've already suggested it - is CoinSafe holders, whose strong point is a clear-enough view of the edge for photography and research purposes. They limit your album options to pages with sleeves, though.
I appreciate all the insights. I think for me, the Caps Albums seem like to best option. I think I will just order one and try it out. I'm going to use it for the German collection which right now is ever expanding. I think a generic unlabeled album will work the best...and down the road maybe a custom labeled one.
I know. That's something I really like about them. Problem is...this particular collection isn't big enough for a custom album to make sense. But down the road I think it would be perfect.
Here's a question. Do you think the airtites with the foam rings will look okay in a page if the color of the foam is not uniform? The reason I ask is I try and select black verses white foam for each coin to give the best contrast with the coin. Will it look bad if a page has some black and some white rings mixed together? Personally I think it would prefer to use the appropriate ring to give the coin itself the best look even at a sacrifice to overall album esthetics. Thoughts?
I put all my raw coins in black ring air-tites, for uniformity. You might be able to get the same effect by grouping all the black ring capsules together, and doing the same with the white ring capsules.
