Late Night and a Russian Type Set

When it comes to the coins we collect, there is certainly a lot of diversity. Anyone in or outside of the hobby these days could tell you something about American, foreign, error, or proof coins, and, in comparison, coin albums are a bit of a bore.

Seriously. How is it that in a hobby which spans the entire planet, we only have storage products in North America for those who prefer something which can go on a shelf available from Dansco, Littleton, Whitman, and if you are feeling adventurous, Arabian Coins? You would think there would be greater competition in a product space where people need to cut holes into some sheets of what amounts to cardboard with faux leather on it. Instead, we have what amounts to a cartel, but I went looking for something else and, by luck, found it.

I often hate to set a scene that makes me look gluttonous, but I believe in being honest, so a few weeks ago, there I was. It was late at night, games were being played, and I had a whole pizza to myself and enough caffeinated beverages by my side to keep awake an army of med students. An online match of Call of Duty connected, and I began to converse and, in amazement, met a new coin collector.

He is in Latvia. American coins are not common there, but Russian and other European ones are, and when he mentioned how he had access to type sets for Russia, different Russian rulers, Poland, Germany, and elsewhere, I shot awake.

“What? I always thought the dominant market/center for this all is the U.S.?”

This almost feels unsettling to have, but it is not. Supplied photo

The repressive society version of a Dansco. Supplied photo

“Ah, Mr. Evan, what we don’t know can fill books, and where there is industry, one can always find someone looking to make a profit off of any kind of hobby.”

I asked for pictures, received some promptly, and, also being a gambler at times, paid some money and waited and hoped the album pictured in this article for the coins of Tsar Alexander III would make it across the world and to my hands. As you can tell, it did, and I have never been more rapt by a completely empty book.

For starters, the item and (I assume here, since I have not purchased any others yet) its peers are very well-made. Holding the red and gold-colored book in my hands as I wrote this article, I felt a heft not as common in American-made albums, and while the text on the spine, front cover, inside and back is in Russian, a quick look on the coins-mania site on the back cover allowed me to get some translated information and, curiously, one page even covers the Tsar’s gold.

Will I ever be able to finish the whole thing? Probably not. But I could not be more intellectually delighted to have it. It has opened my eyes to what else might be out there, got me researching a brand called Teji in Japan and, given how expansive these are, makes me again mad at Dansco for no updates as of filing.

Surely, they could do something similar, right? We are supposed to beat Russia.

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