PVC?

The coins I buy normally come in thoe flip which are for sure recommended, but I dont like to keep mine like that as I want them in pages with both sides clearly visable.

Having had a problem with PVC from some earlier binders which I threw out I replaced my storage and I am now using selfadhesive Mylar 2x2's in lighthouse numis 4 ring binder pages.

I bought 3 other lighthouse binders for my foriegn miscellaneous coinage. The plastic doesn't smell at all of plastic, and is not soft...its hard almost brittle.

My original binder which I always kept my British coins in seems to be made of the same material and I had no problems with that (25 years my coins have been in there)

The slime from the soft binders I had left green on the coin which was removed easily enough with acetone but sadly the luster from many coins dissapeared as a result of the exposure to that slime.

The coins which seemed to react most were the cupro-nickel coins and the silver slightly also. The copper/bronze coins which were protected by heavy patina seemed largely uneffected.

I am a little paranoid too about PVC. The binders that got replaced I phoned the supplier who said they hadnt received complaints before and their supllier assured them that they are 100% safe archival quality. It doesn't add up though since the plastic was particularly soft (barely able to support the weight of the coins within) and they said that they are continually updating their materials and are aware of the problems of achiving items within certain mixtures of plastic.

Next I will turn my attention to my multiple banknote binders... these I am sure 90% of the pages are OK but a few seem to be made of a different material which I am not as confident in.

I sniff everything now, if I can smell plasticy smells then something must be airborn logically... so thats not good. I am unwilling to start burning things and analysing the colour of the flame though so ultimately a little trust is required...try to stick with branded/tried and tested products.

I'm a sniffer now also!

...and probably just a little crazy.