Best Long Term Storage For Showcasing A Couple Thousand Total Chips (1 Viewer)

[BarrieJ3]

Finalizing last deal to close up my samples/singles collection. Organization overall has been difficult with samples sitting in warneckes. I've also realized that only a select few samples will be on wall displays, I need a way to display/organize the remainder (prob around 1500-2000k+ total chips).

My google fu is not giving me anything usable.

I know this is the fall back standard, but I'd like to avoid the standard collector binder. Is there anything thats more......"display of cool artwork to look through" and less....."my house is filled with boxes and a musty smell, want to see everything I collect?".

I've looked at various types of other displays, but I can't find anything that provides ability to easily see/pull chip/sample while also having a large density (storing many chips in the smallest space/area as possible).

Someone please assist on better ways to hide away but easily display when needed your collections.....

 

[OutOfTown]

Have you looked at storage options for coin collections? They can get simple binders, too, but there are higher quality options. I am using "Lighthouse" brand MB series stackable acrylic boxes for my coins.

 

[Wifey]

My first thoughts:

You are never going to be able to display all of them at once, so make it easy to change them out and put the rest away in their standard binders.
You will need a few different displays to be out at any given time.
You will want something custom.

My google fu lead me to "Custom Made Challenge Coin Displays"
There are LOTS of hobby CNC woodworkers out there willing to turn your ideas into reality...


You should be able to take any of these wall or flat deigns and ask for an easily moved glass topper/protector to put UV glass over the chips.
Protect the chips from UV AND sticky fingers....

 

[JWC]

I use airtight to hold the chips and store them in double row boxes. This gets about 110 chips per box. The airtights hold up to 43mm chips.

 

[ekricket]

Take your binder, and cut the back and front covers off leaving just the spine and rings. Screw this underneath a shelf.
Voila! Instant hanging folder you can flip through as your sheets hang down now.

 

[BarrieJ3]

My first thoughts:

You are never going to be able to display all of them at once, so make it easy to change them out and put the rest away in their standard binders.
You will need a few different displays to be out at any given time.
You will want something custom.

My google fu lead me to "Custom Made Challenge Coin Displays"
There are LOTS of hobby CNC woodworkers out there willing to turn your ideas into reality...

View attachment 1586513
You should be able to take any of these wall or flat deigns and ask for an easily moved glass topper/protector to put UV glass over the chips.
Protect the chips from UV AND sticky fingers....

I want everything easily accessible (which would be binders if I have to).

The ones that are going up I’m fine with for now. I have between 60-100+ of the Michaels coin displays. I’m just going to use some of those for now. I won’t ever change them, the same ones stayed in the old house for all 3 years I had em.

The problem is the remainder of chips and how to keep them easily organized and viewable.

(Last house I had 2 walls and an office to fill so I could get every chip up, just not covering the walls at this house

)

 

[BarrieJ3]

I use airtight to hold the chips and store them in double row boxes. This gets about 110 chips per box. The airtights hold up to 43mm chips.

Just looked this up.

I love how easily they’re put away and organized, but feels like it’d be pretty difficult for someone to view what they’re looking for, if that makes sense?

I suppose it’s just a couple stacks of boxes and could label the type of chip or samples inside them.

 

[doublebooyah85]

I want everything easily accessible (which would be binders if I have to).

The ones that are going up I’m fine with for now. I have between 60-100+ of the Michaels coin displays. I’m just going to use some of those for now. I won’t ever change them, the same ones stayed in the old house for all 3 years I had em.

The problem is the remainder of chips and how to keep them easily organized and viewable.

(Last house I had 2 walls and an office to fill so I could get every chip up, just not covering the walls at this house

View attachment 1586525)

That’s a bummer this was cool

 

[BarrieJ3]

Have you looked at storage options for coin collections? They can get simple binders, too, but there are higher quality options. I am using "Lighthouse" brand MB series stackable acrylic boxes for my coins.

Googling this and looking around, this seems to maybe be a possibility:

Obviously sized to chips, but this was on lighthouse website.

To me it kinda looks like one of the standard wall displays but in your hand and stackable.

Just something like 6-10 stacks of these would probably cover it:

 

[BarrieJ3]

That’s a bummer this was cool

Yes but it was also the front room. Like you walked in the house and it’s the first thing you see.

She said no more holes in the walls, but then I just covered all the walls in my office (also front of the house).

So she probably deserves some time in a house not covered. (I too would prefer some normal deco)

Edit - but still want them easily accessible and viewed. Don’t know if possible, but that’s the wish.

 

[DrStrange]

Faced this very question years ago.

Example of the collection:

078

• DrStrange
• Sep 9, 2016

Roughly 25 of these, 63 chips in each. Other items to display include several large sets, framed sheet of uncut Dejign cards, plaques, oddities and a host of other gambling brick-a-brack. And all sorts of unique chips from around the world.

I built a purpose built "poker emporium" with picture rails on most of the walls. Its 500 square feet. Turns out that isn't big enough to display everything, not close. I also have a five level lawyer's bookcase from the early 1900's filled with all sorts of goodies.

I considered laying some of the chips into the floor itself. Not only ouchy expensive, but who wants to make their beautiful chips irreparably into flooring? (and my real estate agent observed this would be a sticking point when trying to sell the house as most people don't want a poker chip floor.)

I planned to rotate out displays. But in reality, I just never found the time and energy to shuffle the collection.

Truth is, the display is pretty overwhelming. Almost no one examines the wall art in detail. They appreciate the broad brush but don't care about the detail. I doubt anyone would notice if I swapped one framed chip collection with another one.

Its a tough problem. Turns out chip collections are somewhat like vacation pictures - people might like to see the first handful then they don't much care about the other 100 pictures. -=- DrStrange

 

[BarrieJ3]

I built a purpose built "poker emporium" with picture rails on most of the walls. Its 500 square feet.

Dear Mr. DrStrange,

Inquiring minds would very much like to see photos of this.

Thank you,
PCF

 

[OutOfTown]

Truth is, the display is pretty overwhelming. Almost no one examines the wall art in detail.

I guess at some point you have to start curating your collection, select a few pieces for open display and archive the remaining part of the selection. You could rotate what's on display.

If I had to catch a random visitor's attention, I would probably put only a small amount of remarkable chips on display where visitors can see them first. Preferably chips with an interesting story attached, or from a well known location or event. Like you said: It's overwhelming when there are too many chips. People can't even decide where to start, especially if they aren't chippers.

More chips can then be on display a few steps away. It is really about making them curious first, then keeping them interested. If your goal is to have a private exhibition, that is.

 

[ekricket]

Something like this might make it interesting to leaf through

 

[DrStrange]

No effort to curate the image - what you see is how it looks right now. Its my phone plus my low photographic skill level.

IMG_0150.webp

• DrStrange
• Nov 5, 2025

The poker emporium

Custom table by Chanman tables. On the left you can almost see a 1,200 chip outpost set and a 1,200 piece
Aztar display case. Picture rail with framed chips. The lawyer's case with all sorts of curiosities.

The chip vault is the door on the left. -=- DrStrange

 

[Gus]

These wood racks intended to display challenge coins are the best I've found for high density of chips while allowing easy access to pick up and inspect. Could be mounted on shelves and modified so they wouldn't spill everything over the edge if bumped.

Next photo down are 1000-chip racks from Spinetti's that I'm just getting set up to hold shuffle stacks. They fit 2x across on standard wire racking. Depending how dense I want to go they could simply slide into racking and be stacked very tightly, or in a more open way so everything would remain visible.

 

[BarrieJ3]

These wood racks intended to display challenge coins are the best I've found for high density of chips while allowing easy access to pick up and inspect. Could be mounted on shelves and modified so they wouldn't spill everything over the edge if bumped.

Next photo down are 1000-chip racks from Spinetti's that I'm just getting set up to hold shuffle stacks. They fit 2x across on standard wire racking. Depending how dense I want to go they could simply slide into racking and be stacked very tightly, or in a more open way so everything would remain visible.

View attachment 1586630

View attachment 1586631

Yeah those wood racks are great and everyone’s first suggestion, but would need massive real estate to place a ton of those.

I didn’t think of chip racks. You know what i think that’s prob enough for now, can at least get everything out and organized and shoved into the game closet. One day can figure out something more perfect.

3 of em ordered and on the way.

 

[GreatWhiteDope]

You have to pull the drawers open, but I combined what I think is a stylish piece of furniture with a couple dozen of the Spinetti 1000 chip racks as my chip storage. I put a different casino in each barrel slot. This may work for you as well. A nice map cabinet and racks. And for your purposes, I wonder if someone with a 3D printer could whip up some kind of insert with say 4-5 slits for each of those barrel sized slots in the 1000 chip racks. So a cabinet like this, with 12 drawers, would display a total of around That would hold about 4800-6000 chips in display mode. Just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about, I took a small piece of dense foam and cut some slits in it and sat it in one of the barrel slots. See last photo.

 

[AlbinoDragon]

Googling this and looking around, this seems to maybe be a possibility:

View attachment 1586533

Obviously sized to chips, but this was on lighthouse website.

To me it kinda looks like one of the standard wall displays but in your hand and stackable.

Just something like 6-10 stacks of these would probably cover it:

View attachment 1586534

I eventually found where these are on the Lighthouse website. I don't have anywhere near 2000 collectable chips I want to store and be able to access easily, but was getting frustrated with the chip boxes and albums from Air-Tites. The former are really meant for storage and the latter are a a bit better, but not quite ideal for browsing my collection.

Once I figured out how these ^^^ trays worked, I realize they might be more like what I have been looking for.

Thanks for pointing these out as a storage/display option.