Coins are collected in a variety of ways and coin albums are designed in different ways to accommodate that most popular collections. The three frequently referenced collections are:
- DATE SETS
An album that contains a single coin from each year regardless of how many locations that coin was minted. This is a popular way of collecting coins for new collections as well as for coins that are difficult / expensive to obtain. If a coin was minted in both Philadelphia & Denver in a particular year, a date set album would have space for just one coin and would not specify which mint.
- P&D SETS
The United States mints coins at both the Philadelphia & Denver mints for general circulation and each coin is stamped with P or D. P&D albums are design to accommodate one coin from each mint for each year and each slot is labeled either Philadelphia or Denver. There is no reason why someone new to coin collecting would not start with a P&D collection, although it is more difficult to collect coins out of general circulation from two mints than one.
- WITH PROOF SETS
Many coins are also minted with a special strike called a proof and are available for purchase at a premium that is above its face value. Since people pay extra for proofs you will usually not find them in general circulation, unless they got there by accident. Some albums, like Dansco, will hold both San Francisco Proofs and Silver Proofs. Other albums, like Whitman, will hold just a single proof. US proof coins are currently minted in San Francisco and are stamped with an S.