This post has been a long time in the making. As a Dansco coin album collector, I often come across odd albums that make me think, "Why did Dansco make this?" That curiosity led me to dip my toe into the world of numismatic research. Being here in Colorado and close to the ANA headquarters in Colorado Springs, I had the unique opportunity to visit their library and personally explore their rare collection. It initially started as a way to satisfy my curiosity. I began posting insights I found interesting on my Instagram account in case other collectors wanted to follow along. What I did not expect was collectors coming out of the woodwork and encouraging me to publish my insights in professional outlets.

I was flattered, but I didn't pursue it because I felt like an imposter. After all, how could I compete against established names in the hobby with decades of experience? I'm just a regular collector who happens to find certain coin albums interesting. But these feelings of inadequacy slowly fell by the wayside as those in the hobby reached out and offered to guide me through the publication process. Those conversations eased my concerns, but what ultimately pushed me over the line was the realization that it would have been selfish to keep my research to myself. The world should know the story of Ervin J. Felix and his albums.

I'm excited to announce my first research publication by the American Numismatic Association [ANA]! My article delves into the history of the Dansco Corporation and Ervin J. Felix, the accidental grandfather of the modern-day Dansco Supreme albums. While he initially set out to create a superior album for collectors, he left behind a profound legacy in coin preservation.

Below is a short excerpt from the article:

Ervin J. Felix was a coin and stamp expert who worked as the West Coast distributor for the Coin & Currency Institute (C&CI) in the late 1950s and early ’60s. After almost a decade of distributing albums for C&CI, he had heard a lot of feedback from dealers and collectors on what they liked and disliked about the current coin albums on the market.

In 1963, Felix took his insights and left C&CI to create a competing set of albums, the Continental Line series. Since he was in Southern California and Dansco was already based in Los Angeles, he contracted with Dansco to make his albums. Felix posted several advertisements for his albums in a few issues of Coin World. The Continental Line series only ran for a few years, but during that time, Felix made significant changes. He switched the binder material from vinyl to faux leather and expanded the line of albums to include countries such as Austria, Germany, and Luxembourg.

To read the rest of the article, you can find it on the ANA's Reading Room page here. A big thank you to all the collectors who pushed me to publish!

Justin Hinh [aka Dansco Dude]

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