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Guns, Gamblers, and Grains: The Untold History of Dansco Specialty Albums

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Note: Video of the presentation linked at the bottom

The following is a synopsis of my presentation delivered at the American Numismatic Association's 2024 Nation Money Show in Colorado Springs. While the classic brown Dansco album is a staple for many collectors, it often serves as a silent witness to history that stretches far beyond standard circulation sets. My research into specialty albums reveals a fascinating intersection of military conflict, casino logistics, and global humanitarian efforts. Throughout this post, I have included several slides from the original presentation to illustrate these hidden narratives.

I am known online as the Dansco Dude, and my personal mission is to collect one of every Dansco album ever made. My collection currently stands at over 1000 unique albums and folders.

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Beyond the standard sets for Kennedy Half Dollars or Washington Quarters, I have spent years hunting for custom one-off albums that Dansco made since the 1960s. These custom albums often tell unique stories most people have forgetten. Below are three I discovered:

Part 1: Guns — From The Middle East To Rural Australia

Our story begins in 1979 with a scene of absolute political brutality. Saddam Hussein, having been in office for only six days, called an emergency session of the Iraqi National Assembly. In a smoke filled room, he sat on stage, smoked a cigar, and shed a tear while listing 68 "traitors" within his own government.

As their names were called, these political opponents were led outside and executed by their own colleagues to prove loyalty to the new regime.

This purge solidified Saddam's power, but it also set the stage for two decades of war. First came the eight year bloody conflict with Iran, which left Iraq with 14 billion dollars in debt to Kuwait. Saddam’s response to this debt was the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, leading to Operation Desert Storm. This was the largest combat operation since World War II, involving 1.5 million soldiers and the first use of GPS guided missiles in warfare.

Right after the war ended, the commemorative market exploded. Major General Smedley Butler once said:

And oh man did the numismatic world proved him right. I discovered a very odd Dansco album titled "Desert Storm Coin Collection." This album featured five pages of coins commemorating specific tanks, missiles, and equipment used in the conflict.

The mystery deepened when I looked at the certificate of authenticity. It was signed by a "Todd Parker," listed as the Director of the Mint. However, the U.S. Mint never had a director by that name.

Parker was actually the owner of Continental Coin and Jewelry in Southern California. Even more strange was the name on the coins: the Principality of Hutt River.

This took my research to a 50 square mile patch of desert in Western Australia. Prince Leonard Casley, a wheat farmer, seceded from Australia in 1970 after a dispute over wheat production quotas.

The government told him he could only harvest 100 acres out of his 10,000, so he declared sovereignty. He eventually declared war on Australia in 1977 and then declared peace two days later because Australia "failed to defeat him."

The Desert Storm coins were actually a marketing masterclass by an entrepreneur named Kevin Gale, who Gale convinced Prince Leonard to lend the Hutt River name to these coins for the American market.

Gale eventually committed treason by setting up his own legal entity to sell these coins without reporting the income back to the Prince. The principality eventually collapsed in 2020 due to COVID 19 related border closures and a massive tax bill from the Australian government.

A side note: I shared my presentation with Prince Graeme [Prince Leonard's son and direct heir to Hutt River] to help fact check before giving my presentation. I was lucky enough to get his majesty's blessing.

Part 2: Gamblers — The Silver Crisis and the Mob

If Hutt River represented dreams of independence, the "Gamblers" section of my research represents the dream of striking it rich. This history centers on Elmer "Bones" Remmer, a violent mobster who ran the Oaks Club in Northern California and various clubs in Nevada.

Remmer was a man who shook people down for money, but he eventually met his match in a government official named Pat Mooney.

In 1946, Mooney, a Nevada IRS field officer, offered Remmer a deal: buy 52,000 dollars worth of shares in Mooney’s Mountain City Consolidated Copper Company, and the IRS would "fudge the numbers" on Remmer’s tax debt. Both men eventually went to jail, but their story illustrates the corrupt overlap between the gaming industry and the state.

During this era, the most significant threat to casinos wasn't the law though, but the price of silver. By 1963, silver hit 1.29 dollars per ounce.

This was the exact melting point where the silver content in a Morgan or Peace Dollar was worth more than its face value. People stopped spending silver dollars and started hoarding them. This created a massive problem for casinos that relied on dollar slots.

The solution was the birth of the gaming token. In 1965, the U.S. Treasury granted an exemption to the Coinage Act of 1864, allowing casinos to mint their own tokens for use as legal tender on their properties. The Franklin Mint, then known as the General Numismatics Corporation, won the contract to produce millions of these tokens.

Dansco stepped in to provide the albums for collectors. I have the 1966 "Dollar Gaming Tokens" album, which spans seven pages of tokens from iconic houses like the Flamingo and Caesars Palace.

The most fascinating detail is a sticker on the back of my specific album. It was a presentation set given by the Franklin Mint to none other than Pat Mooney, the corrupt official who had been in league with the mob years prior. It's a fascinating artifact linking the birth of the gaming token to the very men who controlled the industry.

Part 3: Grains — The Global Fight Against Famine

The final chapter of this presentation, "Grains," moves away from greed and war toward humanitarianism. After World War II, the United Nations was tasked with fighting a different kind of war: the war against hunger.

Famine remains one of the most horrific experiences for humanity, famously captured in the Pulitzer Prize winning photo by Kevin Carter during the Sudanese famine.

In 1968, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched the largest numismatic project in history. They coordinated with over 100 governments to issue coins with the theme of food security and the motto "Fiat Panis," or "Let there be bread." These weren't just commemoratives; they were coins meant for actual circulation.

Dansco was the only manufacturer approved to produce the official UN FAO Money Albums from 1968 to 1978.

During my research, I found letters from the FAO organizers to collectors that sound remarkably modern. In 1974, the FAO had to apologize because Dansco was six months behind on production.It turns out that being unable to find a Dansco album in stock is a tradition that spans at least 60 years.

Why I Care About Coin Albums

Coin albums are more than just storage; they are a representation of the history these coins have endured. My research was heavily influenced by the late David Lange. David was working on a fifth book specifically about the Dansco Corporation before he passed away. I was able to secure a portion of his research and collection to continue his work.

There are over a hundred different Dansco custom albums I've documented so far, and many more unknown are still out there. Every time I find a custom album made for a specific event like the Rose Parade or a small town coin club, I am reminded that this hobby is a limitless archive of our culture.

The next time you see an odd looking album in a coin shop, I invite you to check it out. You might be holding a piece of a forgotten war, a mobster's tax dodge, or a global mission to end hunger.

If you would like to see a video of this presentation, you can view it below or via my YouTube channel [42 minutes]. I hope you enjoyed this short foray into my world of the wild stories that custom Dansco albums have to share. If you have come across an odd Dansco album that you would like to learn more about, please feel free to reach out!

Let's get in touch!

justinphinh@gmail.com