coin holders to display shark, ray and bony fish micros

[MarcoSr]

With the extra time that I have at home due to Covid-19, I have been better organizing my fossil collection.  The vast majority of my micro shark, ray, and bony fish specimens are in gem jar displays.  I use mostly white (I use black for light colored teeth) displays with 24 (1.75 inch diameter) jars or 50 (1.25 inch diameter) jars to display these micros.  Below are examples of a black 24 jar display and a white 50 jar display:

 

 

 

 

 

I have these displays in drawers in map chests.  I have currently 194 gem jar displays in 6 map chests.  Below is a picture of a representative drawer and one of my four low map chests.  I also have two high map chests:

 

 

 

 

 

Displaying my micros this way is really costly (cost of gem jar displays and map chests).  It also takes up a lot of room space.

 

I just recently put coin holders with micro specimens that I received as a gift from researcher Gerard R. Case and that I received in trade from renown French collector and researcher Pierre Zennaro into coin holder sheets.  Please see the pictures below:

 

2 inch by 2 inch coin holders from Pierre Zennaro with mostly Moroccan specimens in two 20 coin holder sheets:

 

 

 

 

 

2 inch by 2 inch coin holders from Gerard R. Case with USA specimens from New Jersey and Wyoming in a 20 coin holder sheet:

 

 

 

 

I want to point out the advantages of using coin holders over gem jar displays for micro shark, ray and bony fish specimens.  It is much cheaper to use coin holders, coin holder sheets, 3 ring binders and book shelves then costly gem jar displays and map chests.  The coin holder binders take up much less space than the gem jar displays.  I could easily fit my micros on a single bookcase versus six large map chests.  In the coin holders you can see both sides of the specimens versus only the up side in a gem jar display.

 

However there are disadvantages to the coin holders as it is more difficult to put the larger micros in coin holders but you can use sliver dollar and half dollar coin holders for larger specimens.  However, coin holders would not work for larger, really thick specimens.  It is easy to put a single species id on the coin holder but it gets a lot harder if the coin holder has a bunch of species in it.  It gets harder to add all of the other information (time period, collecting site, formations etc.).  In my gem jar displays I put a number on the bottom of the gem jar and then have a separate word document for each gem jar display that has all the information that I want to include by gem jar number.  I then put a hard copy of this document in each gem jar display under the foam.  You could put a number on each coin holder and do something similar and put the word document in the 3 ring binder with the coin holder sheets.   However the biggest disadvantage is if you wish to add or remove specimens from a coin holder.  You need to remove at least one staple and then restaple the coin holder.  If you don’t plan on removing or adding specimens this isn’t a problem.  However, I often add specimens to my gem jars as I find more of a species and I often remove specimens to take pictures of them.  I also store labeled baggies of the more worn and damaged specimens from the same site in my map chest drawers also with the gem jar displays and also store Riker mounts and individual macro specimens.  So I would still need map chest storage.

 

If I had the chance to start again, I probably would use coin holders for my smaller, thinner shark, ray and bony fish micros.

 

Marco Sr.

[Darbi]

I have never thought of using the coin holders to hold my future micro collections. Thank you for giving me an idea!

[Tidgy's Dad]

Amazing! 

It looks great, and so many species from Morocco! 

[Bob Saunders]

very nice and I have coin mounts. How did you label them as they may not go thru a printer or sold as sheets. The old style home ink stamp set I likely still have with letter insert pieces would not have the shape or font. 

[MarcoSr]

1 hour ago, Darbi said:

I have never thought of using the coin holders to hold my future micro collections. Thank you for giving me an idea!

 

I really didn't think of it by myself either.  I've received a number of coin holders, with micro specimens from mostly researchers, over the years and thought that it was an inexpensive, space saving, etc. way to display the micros.

 

Marco Sr.

[MarcoSr]

1 hour ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Amazing! 

It looks great, and so many species from Morocco! 

 

I rarely trade for specimens themselves.  I mostly just trade for matrix with micro specimens.  However, years back I had the opportunity to trade with Pierre Zannaro for specimens that I didn't think I would be able to get any other way.  So I took advantage of the opportunity.  I also have baggies with larger specimens from Pierre.  I was able to trade at a later time for matrix with micros from a good number of couches (layers) and sites in Morocco with two collectors from Belgium.  However, Pierre provided a number of species that I didn't find in this matrix.

 

Marco Sr.

[MarcoSr]

1 hour ago, Bob Saunders said:

very nice and I have coin mounts. How did you label them as they may not go thru a printer or sold as sheets. The old style home ink stamp set I likely still have with letter insert pieces would not have the shape or font. 

 

I received the coin holders as is and placed them in the coin holder sheets.  All of the writing is on the coin holders themselves and not on the coin holder sheets.  Jerry labeled his coin holders by hand.  I could never do that as my handwriting is unreadable.  Pierre printed out his labeling and then glued the labels to the coin holders.  If I was doing coin holders myself, I would print the labels like Pierre and use a glue stick to attach them.

 

Marco Sr.

[FossilsAnonymous]

I do this as well. It’s an amazing strategy!

[hokietech96]

@MarcoSr Thanks for sharing all this.  These are great ideas for display! Your collection looks amazing

[The Jersey Devil]

@MarcoSr

 

Awesome displays. Were the NJ Willow Brook specimens found as float or through a matrix sample?

[Bob Saunders]

My writing is bad and a stroke hasn't helped. I do have packets of small to very small printing peel and stick label sheets, but never found a good way to use them with their downloadable software. For specimen I'd cards I like printing on regular paper in different Fonts and cutting with a good paper cutter. May put a touch of U Stick on an index card and cover with wide clear package tape. Then cut to size with a paper cutter.  I have Calligraphy pens and ink but not learned to use the yet.  

[Praefectus]

Amazing displays!

[Randyw]

Great idea! I never thought of doing this! Thank you for posting it!

[Mark Kmiecik]

One thing to remember is that this method is not suitable for fragile specimens, because of the possibility of being crushed by their own weight as pages are added to the binder. For fragile specimens, hard plastic coin holders may be suitable depending of the thickness of the specimen. However, with the plastic holders cost again becomes a consideration.

[MarcoSr]

2 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

One thing to remember is that this method is not suitable for fragile specimens, because of the possibility of being crushed by their own weight as pages are added to the binder. For fragile specimens, hard plastic coin holders may be suitable depending of the thickness of the specimen. However, with the plastic holders cost again becomes a consideration.

 

Unless the specimen is thicker than the cardboard coin holder thickness, all the weight is born by the coin holder not the specimens.  Gem jars are even more problematic because the plastic covers press the specimens onto the foam in the gem jars.  Almost all shark, ray and fish teeth are sturdy enough for either gem jars or coin holders.  I've never damaged a fragile specimen in a gem jar.  However, I have damaged fragile specimens handling them to take pictures.

 

Marco Sr.

[MarcoSr]

5 hours ago, The Jersey Devil said:

@MarcoSr

 

Awesome displays. Were the NJ Willow Brook specimens found as float or through a matrix sample?

 

Jerry Case collected those specimens and put them into the coin holders.  I'm not sure how he collected the specimens.  The other specimens that I have from New Jersey all came from matrix that I received from other collectors.  For the best provenance, I always prefer specimens directly from formation matrix versus from float like stream gravel.

 

Marco Sr.

[The Jersey Devil]

1 minute ago, MarcoSr said:

 

Jerry Case collected those specimens and put them into the coin holders.  I'm not sure how he collected the specimens.  The other specimens that I have from New Jersey all came from matrix that I received from other collectors.  For the best provenance, I always prefer specimens directly from formation matrix versus from float like stream gravel.

 

Marco Sr.

I would love to see any of the other specimens you have from NJ.

[MarcoSr]

6 hours ago, FossilsAnonymous said:

I do this as well. It’s an amazing strategy!

 

6 hours ago, hokietech96 said:

@MarcoSr Thanks for sharing all this.  These are great ideas for display! Your collection looks amazing

 

3 hours ago, Praefectus said:

Amazing displays!

 

3 hours ago, Randyw said:

Great idea! I never thought of doing this! Thank you for posting it!

 

Thank you.  Hopefully this post helps other collectors to display their shark, ray and bony fish micros.

 

Marco Sr.

[MarcoSr]

4 hours ago, Bob Saunders said:

My writing is bad and a stroke hasn't helped. I do have packets of small to very small printing peel and stick label sheets, but never found a good way to use them with their downloadable software. For specimen I'd cards I like printing on regular paper in different Fonts and cutting with a good paper cutter. May put a touch of U Stick on an index card and cover with wide clear package tape. Then cut to size with a paper cutter.  I have Calligraphy pens and ink but not learned to use the yet.  

 

I'm not very good with cutting labels and taping things.  I have zero patience and shaky hands.  If I start making up coin holders for my micros, I'll do the printing but my wife will help and do all of the cutting, taping, placing etc.

 

Marco Sr.

[MarcoSr]

30 minutes ago, The Jersey Devil said:

I would love to see any of the other specimens you have from NJ.

 

Almost everything that I have from NJ is in baggies.  I only have one partial gem jar display from Ramanessin Brook with Cretaceous specimens from NJ (see the below picture).

 

 

 

 

Marco Sr.

[digit]

9 hours ago, Bob Saunders said:

How did you label them as they may not go thru a printer or sold as sheets.

I used to label my slides (remember them back before smart phones?) with descriptions of the species and location. For this I used return address labels. You can get sheets of these at office supply stores (or these days online). I used to use the ones made by Avery but they are available from many different manufacturers. They have template software available which allows you to type in what you want on your labels. The only disadvantage is that these sheets really don't like being run through the laser printer lots of times so you tend to have to fill up a sheet of 80 labels before printing. Not a problem when you are organizing a large number of fossils but more problematic for the incremental additions after that.

 

 

There are also label printers which use rolls of labels which make it easy to print them up one at a time as needed.

 

 

For those who really want to get organized, there are tools available.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

[siteseer]

On 4/15/2020 at 8:33 AM, MarcoSr said:

 

I really didn't think of it by myself either.  I've received a number of coin holders, with micro specimens from mostly researchers, over the years and thought that it was an inexpensive, space saving, etc. way to display the micros.

 

Marco Sr.

 

Hi Marco Sr.,

 

I received some micros in coin holders from a researcher 30 years ago and it must've been an old idea back then as I've seen some old collection specimens in them with the ink faded from age.  The last time I went to Tucson around 2015 a dealer was doing an estate sale and a lot of small teeth were in a binder thick with pages of coin holders.  It is a handy way to store them, but yeah, not if you ever think about photographing single specimens from them.  Some teeth are fragile.  I once found a Hemipristis upper posterior in the STH Bonebed.  I knew I had to be careful with it but the root fragmented just putting it in a 2 x 2 zip lock baggie.  That was a bummer.  I should have put a dot of superglue on it.  It wasn't complete when I saw it but it was pretty good.

 

Have you heard from Pierre Zennaro recently?

 

I once contacted a man who took Case out to that Worland site.  There was an article about him in Rock n Gem maybe thirty years ago.  He gave me some background on that paper Case published in '87.  He didn't have any teeth to trade.  If I recall correctly, he said Archaeotriakis was the rarest teeth there.

 

My collection is partly in coin holders, partly in zip-locks, and partly in all kinds of containers (matchboxes, candy containers, clear plastic boxes of various sizes, etc.).

 

Jess

[MarcoSr]

2 hours ago, siteseer said:

 

Hi Marco Sr.,

 

I received some micros in coin holders from a researcher 30 years ago and it must've been an old idea back then as I've seen some old collection specimens in them with the ink faded from age.  The last time I went to Tucson around 2015 a dealer was doing an estate sale and a lot of small teeth were in a binder thick with pages of coin holders.  It is a handy way to store them, but yeah, not if you ever think about photographing single specimens from them.  Some teeth are fragile.  I once found a Hemipristis upper posterior in the STH Bonebed.  I knew I had to be careful with it but the root fragmented just putting it in a 2 x 2 zip lock baggie.  That was a bummer.  I should have put a dot of superglue on it.  It wasn't complete when I saw it but it was pretty good.

 

Have you heard from Pierre Zennaro recently?

 

I once contacted a man who took Case out to that Worland site.  There was an article about him in Rock n Gem maybe thirty years ago.  He gave me some background on that paper Case published in '87.  He didn't have any teeth to trade.  If I recall correctly, he said Archaeotriakis was the rarest teeth there.

 

My collection is partly in coin holders, partly in zip-locks, and partly in all kinds of containers (matchboxes, candy containers, clear plastic boxes of various sizes, etc.).

 

Jess

 

Jess

 

No I haven't heard from Pierre in a while.

 

Jerry moved from South Carolina to Mississippi.  He is still angry with me because he couldn't write a paper on some of my Virginia specimens because I didn't want to donate them to Cappetta's museum in France.  I wanted to donate them to a US museum.  Unfortunately I've heard Jerry has serious health problems.

 

I also have specimens in zip-lock baggies and clear plastic sowing boxes.  I've tried to get my nicer smaller specimens into Riker Mounts and Gem Jar displays.  I have a basement full of boxes of bigger specimens because I just don't have the room to display many bigger specimens upstairs.

 

Marco Sr.

 

 

[digit]

On 4/15/2020 at 9:56 AM, MarcoSr said:

I just recently put coin holders with micro specimens that I received as a gift from researcher Gerard R. Case and that I received in trade from renown French collector and researcher Pierre Zennaro into coin holder sheets.  Please see the pictures below:

 

2 inch by 2 inch coin holders from Pierre Zennaro with mostly Moroccan specimens in two 20 coin holder sheets:

 

 

I have been packing up my office (moving up to Gainesville soon to work closer with the FLMNH ). While boxing up my slide collection (yes, I started photography back in the chemical days before digital) I found a bunch of sheets of slide mounts (as shown above). If there is anybody else here on the forum who is storing their micros in coin mounts like this and would like a bunch of sheets to hold them, please drop me a PM and I'll send them your way (US only as international postage would probably be way more than I paid for these years ago).

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken