so this new acquisition should do the trick for the time being



Now all I have to do is figure out how to get it home to Oregon from Illinois....

hehehe

Of course most folks don't collect medals the size of dinner plates!

Looks like a great solution but now you're going to need a walk-in vault...

I'm already looking into it...sort of a "panic room" actually....heh

That's a great cabinet.

The perfect solution for a magnificent collection. I'm guessing, however, that its already filled before you even get it home?

That's my idea of a panic room. Might as well have something to do if you need to hang out somewhere...

Once the unit arrives I'll then need to cut foam core and cover each piece with velvet to place in each drawer bottom.

This is what I'm using now...I filled these two units up in 2 years...

wow that's amazing... could sure use one of those for coins.. lol

indeed, amazing cabinet you have now.

How large is that, it's very hard to estimate it from the pictures, as there are no items on the pictures that I know the size of.....

each drawer is 16"X16".

The medals on the top in this image are 60mm each. This picture was taken long ago and each drawer is crammed full now

!!!!!!!!

Now that's a real hardcore collector

What a great cabinet!!!!

I'm impressed.

That is beautiful.

Great medals and cabinet

However... isn't it likely that your house is just getting too small rather than your collection too large? I think we want to think through the implications of the topic header.

Oh no, could this mean that I might have to boot my mother-in-law to make more room?

I just knew you had your priorities in the right place!

Well, it would open up all sorts of new possibilities for the north end of the house...

Hey, While we're on the subject....anyone got pics of their storage systems? I'd love to see what everyone else is doing too!

Found a guy through UShip.com that will truck the piece to me around the 8th of July. Unfortunately, it doubled my purchase price!!!

... ouch ...

Helluva nice cabinet, though

what will you do with the two cabinets you already have?

You know you could just packup a bunch of those medals and send them to me for storage. Would save you all that cabinet hassle.

I'll probably keep them and use them for the Goetz silver medals and the coin patterns. They really need to be separated from the 80mm and larger pieces due to the potential for damage when the drawers are opened.

If I end up selling them I'll need to at least get what I paid for them which was $300 a pop.

Right now they both fit in my safe so they'll probably stay there.

Most of my collection are coins much smaller than your medals. The space I need is therefore much different. I have several modified jewelry boxes, drawers, and a European coin cabinent (plastic) that I use to store the odd bits of my collection. My primary collections that represent 90% of the value of my collection are kept in a safe.



Inside, I have a custom jewelery box with two by two dividers, Lighthouse storage boxes with two by two divisions and two by two boxes.



I can remove individual drawers while leaving the jewelery box in the safe.



The Lighthouse boxes and two by two boxes have to be removed to work with their contnts.

Sweet Bill! You wouldn't want to see the inside of my safe...what a mess!

Nice neat storage system Bill.

You know Goetzdude, those cabinets remind me of the cabinets used to store ROCKS in the geology department...

Correct you are sir! It is my understanding that this piece came from the bowels of the University of Illinois paleontology department. They used to store fossils in it....at least that's what the seller told me.

Got the call from the truck driver and he had picked it up this morning. Should arrive here on the 12th. Damn, now I have to find a place for it....

Did it arrive savely?

Have you filled it up already?

I would definitely want to have an update as well. This is very interesting to me since I have been trying to figure out for the 2 years I have been collecting a better way to store my collection.

I know I need to invest in a safe. I keep everything in a cedar chest tucked away to one side while blankets reside in the other half. Not much of a deterrent to theft.

That case you bought is beautiful. Hopefully it will look as good when it arrives.

That cabinet is a wonderful piece for holding a collection. It would be a great woodworking project. Please post some more pictures when you get it all setup and working.

Perhaps if this piece was created by Goetz, it would fit suitably in the cupboard!

10 kilo silver monster coin

Hi All....So you want an update do ya?

Okay, here goes...

The cabinet did indeed show up and almost when I expected it. The guy called me at 7:00pm on the 12th. He was about 140 miles away and we estimated that he'd pull into my place about 10:00pm. At 11:30 I went to bed assuming that he had pulled over to get some shut-eye. At 3:00a.m. the phone rings and the guy is asking me for specific directions to the house because he has to "get this stuff off-loaded now." I asked where the Hell he'd been and he starts accusing me that the highway I had told him to take was never meant for large trucks....I come to find out that he decided to take a "short-cut" on 40 mile long tertiary road that had been the main highway back in the 20's and is used mostly by bicyclists nowadays!!! Jeez, What a putz!!! So here I am helping this clown unload and carry the cabinet into the house at 3:30a.m.!!!!!

So, It's here and it was in good shape although I cleaned it more due to the excessive amount of Murpheys Wood Soap the seller had left on the piece.

Several days ago I ordered 25 yards of charcoal-black butter suede material from a place on-line. I didn't need this much as the drawer linings will only take 16 yards of material but the price was real good and you never know when you'll find another bargain.

Now this material is fake suede made from polyester but I have no concerns regarding conservation when it comes to the large cast bronze material. I think these pieces have all been in far worse places over the years and it is certainly a step up from the felt-lined drawers I have them in now. Again, I don't need to worry about out-gassing, etc., etc..

What my plan is next is this: I intend on buying 4X8 sheets of untempered 1/8" thick masonite from the local lumberyard. I will then cut the sheets into 24, 21"X22" pieces. I bought pure cotton batting, the kind used to make light quilts, and will place this on top of each masonite sheet, then I'll cover it with the black suede. The suede will be secured to the bottom of each sheet and then the padded and covered sheet will lie in the bottom of each drawer. This is going to take me a month or so to do in my free time.

No, I don't have anything transferred to the new cabinet although I am using it temporarily to hold 30 or so new pieces I just got while I try and get them attributed, imaged, and put into the database.

I'll provide pics of the process and the end product when I'm done...funny how I can't take a decent picture of anything anymore unless the camera is on a camera stand and in macro-mode...

The material and batting showed up day before yesterday. I was a little disappointed with the material as it isn't Black/Black but more of a dark metallic grey. I haven't decided if I'll send it back or not. I have been dealing with black velvet for so long I was just assuming that "Charcoal Black" would be a dark black.

Now I must pick up 3, 4'X8' sheets of untempered masonite and cut them into 24, 21"X22'" sheets. I haven't decided how I will attach the material to the back of the boards yet and I am thinking about attaching a cloth handle on each side of the sheet so I'd be able to lift the medals out all at once instead of pulling the drawer all the way out.

I'll get pics once I get started but I may still be on the lookout for darker material yet.

I decided today to send back the dark grey sueded material I was going to line the drawers with. I went to Wal-Mart (shhhh, don't tell anyone) and bought 16 yeards of black velvet to do the job with instead. It was a third the price of the "suede" and looks better.

Geez, it took me a week to make this simple decision...

This is fascinating to see such a medallion collection as my interests are starting to lean toward such items. My first question would be concerning the wood involved in the cabinet frame as some woods are very hard on coins in general. And the second would be the composition of most of your medals? Have they toned over time or are they, for the most part, still as you purchased them? The world is full of beautiful works of art, filled with history, and many of them have already disappeared forever. One can't help but be amazed at what you have put together so thank you for sharing your passion with us.

Well I have taken the time to go back and read all the posts so most of my questions have already been answered. You have made this type of collecting very tempting!!!

Goetzdude, your collection just enthralls me...If I only had one suggestion, I would write a bit about each medal...some of them are so...bizarre. I just think you have a most impressive collection, you should put it on tour The black soldier and the woman of the penis is...a bit disturbing as is the skeleton dragging the woman among several other...but most of all...they are just impressive works of art...

may I ask? how did he make these? did he carve them in something like clay first then make a mould? sorry if I am diverting the thread...

I have some very large medals and am looking for a good way to store tham as well...some Zaccagnini among them. I just dont have a need for a large cabinet although I guess if I got a cabinet, I could store coins in them as well...

Wow! that is some cabinet. What a great collection.

It would be a dream to have a cabinet like that to put the larger coins in, like the plate money etc. But they have to reside in several safe deposit boxes because nothing adverts come and burglarize my home more than having coins in the home.

Drusus, I fully intend on writing text for each medal when my new web site comes on-line. It is currently in development and the creative idiosyncracies involved with a site cointaining 500+ pages are staggering. Anyway, each medal will have a full description, medal design sketches, if available, photos for models, varieties, etc., etc.. The canned gallery I currently use does not allow me to enter the needed text and I must create individual HTML pages for each medal (go to my stock page, click on one of the medals and you'll see the text and medal specs). My website will have multiple galleries, both Kienast volumes in digital format, history, forum, etc., etc.. It's just taking time.

Medal creation = sketch on paper, wax/clay/stone model, plaster cast, sand mould, poured metal, finish and add patina. This will all be explained on my website too.

I haven't gotten my cabinet drawers lined as yet and I am now down to three remaining empty drawers. Due to the depth of the drawers I may be able to create a system whereby I can make a second layer in each drawer thereby doubling the capacity of the cabinet.

Thanks for the explanation of how he does it...I assumed it was something like that.

As I have looked for advice in storing my medals, I have had people warn me off of wooden cabinets and velvet....are you at all worried what treated wood might do to your fine collection?

No.

Perhaps I should add my disclaimer:

First, I live at 3500' elevation in little or no humidity.

Second, All the precious metal pieces are in AirTites and do not come into contact with the velvet.

Third, The bronze, copper, iron, aluminum, brass, etc., pieces are doing lovely in their new surroundings and neither the wood or velvet have harmed them. Think about it, many of these medals have sat in their original box of issue made of wood/leather/velvet for many years with no harm.

Now this is for my personal situation... You, on the other hand, live in Houston which will have an entirely unique environment that you'll have to deal with. Different strokes for different folks.

Air at 3500' is a lot better than the stagnant air around the "Golden Triangle" from all the refineries there belching out God knows what 24/7.

hmmm...its IS rather humid here in houston...and thats an understatement...sometimes it is possible to swim in the air. I would like to use wood as it just looks better but maybe It would be best to go with something esle. Thanks

I would be less concerned about the humidity, and more concerned about all the pollution in the humidity there. I lived up north of Houston until 10 yrs ago, I remember going into the city and the eye burning haze that parked there for weeks on end. Cannot be good for metal of any kind.

I live outside of houston proper a ways, there isnt much pollution where I live...especially in my house