I have had a long fascination with the history of the Dansco Corporation and its albums. Through amassing and documenting hundreds of albums, I stumbled across these odd red albums with the label "The Continental Line".

My collection of Continental Line albums

\"The Continental Line\"

Through doing research at the ANA library, conversations with the former Red Book editor Ken Bressett, and looking into David Lange's documentation, I now know the story of the man behind the creation of the Continental Line series of albums. And inadvertently the godfather of the modern-day Dansco Supreme albums.

Ervin J. Felix Photo

Ervin J. Felix was a coin and stamp expert who worked as the West Coast distributor for Coin & Currency Institute [C&CI] in the 1950s and 60s. After almost a decade of distributing Library of Coins albums for C&CI, he heard a lot of feedback from dealers and collectors on what they liked and disliked about how Library of Coins albums were formatted.

In 1963, Ervin took this feedback and left C&CI to create his own competing set of albums, the now coveted Continental Line series. Given he was in Southern California, he had Dansco manufacture his albums.

Coin World Article

Coin World Article

The Continental Line series only ran for a few years, but major revisions were made. Such as the red vinyl binder changing to a red faux leather binder. As well as adjusting page ports like removing certain rarities based on customer feedback.

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Dansco was so impressed with the quality and success of the Continental Line series, they purchased the rights to it sometime in 1965/66. Dansco would continue the Continental Line series for a short while, but around 1966 they transitioned the Continental Series to the now beloved brown Supreme Albums we know today. This marks Dansco's major transition from mainly folders to albums.

Transition from original vinyl Continental to modern brown Dansco [Front]

Transition from original vinyl Continental to modern brown Dansco [Spine]

The great irony is that Ervin then joined Whitman in 1966 as their Senior Stamp Editor for a few years. His original creation of the Continental Line series helped Dansco create the brown Supreme Albums, which is still Whitman’s biggest album competitor today.

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Mr. Felix passed away in 2006 at age 90 but left a profound impact on the coin album world.

He is the creator of the Continental Line series and the godfather of all modern Dansco albums today. What a legacy.