Sealing Flips

Interesting points. I have been using 3M tape for many years now and so far, no change in clarity or color. I too have seen old tapes on items that have turned a horrible brownish but so far not this type.
Now I do like your suggestion of white staples. If it's something that bothers you to see metalic staples in your white flips, you might try covering them with WhiteOut. It is available at any office supply store. HOEVER, I would first contact the manufacturer to see if there is any harmfull fumes emitted during the drying period. WhiteOut, once try is really dry.

just carl, I got another question for you. Do you have any pictures of your flips using the tape? I just want to have some sort of visual guide to go by I guess. Also, do you put your tape around the flip in one uninterrupted piece or do you just tape each of the three sided individually?

I experimented last night after getting home from work with just one continuous piece of tape. I was able to do it, then taking an exacto knife and cutting a slit in the tape at the corners, roughly a millimeter above the flip (so it would seal the corners) and then folding the tape down. It worked rather well. It is additional time in getting it all taken care of but that part I dont mind when it comes to my coins. I was using 3/4" wide tape, so it would work on just about everything except the larger coins and perhaps would require a little more attention to precision on coins like the half dollars, otherwise the tape hangs over a bit into the viewing window for the coin. But I think using 1/2" wide tape would solve that and then using 2-1/2" sized flips with that would solve everything else.

I was looking at CoinEdge holders last night as well and that could be an alternative, but I know nothing about those, so I may just order a couple of them and see what they look like, how big they are and so on.

Also, I have not taken any photos of my coins either. Though it is on the agenda to get done. I've been working on modifying a spreadsheet to keep track of everything and I plan on taking detailed pictures as soon as I can if for nothing else other than insurance purposes. My collection isn't as large as yours by any stretch, but I would like to have some kind of written and visual record of what I have.

A few years ago I bought some newer coins that were shipped to me in those self-adhesive holders and when I got them I was unaware that they were available and thought it was a neat idea so I just left the coins in those holders. Down the road, I dont know exactly how long, I was rummaging through my coins and noticed them again and the coins had turned some, tarnished I guess you would say. It was quite noticeable. Now, I cant say with any amount of certainty that the self-adhesive flips were the issue, but it set the issue in my mind and I've stayed away from them.

When I started buying coins again this year, once again I was going through what I had to see what I needed and those same holders had begun to separate. It didnt look like they had tarnished anymore but adhesive was definitely failing. So while I'm sure they have worked well for others for long periods of time, my experience with them has not faired so well.

Air tight implies a degree of hermeticity. A hermetic seal is the quality of being airtight. In common usage, the term often implies being impervious to air or gas. The degree of "imperviousness" is subject to various test methods and specifications.

Note the effort required to seal something very valuable and important:



While it is a nice thought to "seal" 2x2s, it really can't be done with the materials of a 2x2. I'm content with staples holding it closed, the coins not sloshing about and having a nice white surface to write on.

Unless you have a (usually expensive, if available at all) rider on your homeowner's policy, you can forget about insurance for your collection.

Can you get enough detail using that method for insurance purposes?

I've been using an Excel spreadsheet to documet all my coins for a long time now. At first a column for just about everything. Then one day I realized it really ment nothing to anyone else since without the actual coins there, the spreadsheet could be just a list of anything. I still keep a limited list of most coins but now really cut down to basics and only for my records. Putting anything else on such a list would be just added information and with excessive amounts of coins in a collection, who would know what goes with what.
For example I have 9 of those 2 row Whitman Red Boxes full of 2x2's. All taped so no staples to catch on anything. For records I just count the amount of Cents, Nickels, etc. and list by quantities. Of all of the ones in those boxes I've never seen any changes in toning, tarnishing, corroding, staining or anything else. So Far.
One of the better things about taping a 2x2 shut is the simplicity in opening one. Just slit with a knife and POOF, its open and no little pieces of staples laying around. Also, easy to reuse since no tears from a staple ripped out.