How Do You Store Your Coin Collection?

Non smoking home.

Well, Ngdawa, my coins are partial to mozzarella and cheddar cheese!

Seriously, I just had a thought. While a closet floor is often used to store
coins packed in plastic containers, it is advisable to avoid an outside wall.
My hall closet is up against an outside wall, and mildew has formed along the bottom
wall edge. I do not keep coins there.

True story: my Great Aunt's apartment in New York City was broken into, but her coins were not found. So, deciding to be safe, she put the coins under a floor board --
under her sink!
Well, perhaps the worst place to store coins. In folders and wrapped in paper bags.
No plastic, no desiccant.
Only one set was ruined and these were the least valuable.

I take no special precautions. Coins are tough. Chemical pollutants in the air are the worst, but consider the amounts of coal burned a century ago. Creosote from wood fires a century prior.

No doubt I have not been much help to you. Other members will post other suggestions.

I have a shelf. The coins are open air, on account of me having nothing of worth. I have a prepared storage safe area because I have started to get silver things - I wont say where that is, but ill tell you something I considered. I live in a big old house, so there are many fireplaces - look up into the fireplace, especially if it has a cover. It may be enough to store them on the shelf in there, but also consider putting in hooks and hanging Non PVC pages to hold coins in up in the chimney breast. I found a fireplace with a hole in the wall - probably for pipes, but I havent checked it so didnt consider it.

A storage thread churned up a good idea of using rice as a moisture remover. I reckon it would also make a good hiding place. A bag of rice - a variety that is not favoured in your family, sneakily filled with coins and just left in a cupboard. Just ensure no-one boils your coins.

Avoid PVC, it turns coins black. Keep em in a dry place, preferably cool. Keep it all together but catalogued, big stationery shops sell coin folders but I've found a stamp stamp folder that also worked (short term, I didnt have it for long).

The key to coin preservation is to reduce contact with the atmosphere as much as possible, because it's the air that transmits the things that are hazardous to coins onto the metal surface: oxygen, sulfur compounds and moisture being the three main culprits. Plastic is good for forming containers that form a barrier between the atmosphere and your coins.

I keep my main collection of modern world coins in 2x2 holders; these 2x2s go into photographic slide album pages which then go into archival albums. All of these things are made of plastic... but it's "good plastic".

For coins that are too large in diameter to fit into a 2x2, well... my general policy is, "if it doesn't fit in a 2x2, I don't really want it". For the few coins that have managed to squeeze into the collection regardless of this policy, I have a few 2.5x2.5-sized holders for them, as well as some pages to fit them in, which usually get put in the back of the album. But it's a nuisance having to keep part of the collection in a separate place.

My ancients require a slightly different treatment; because ancients usually have very high relief, they stretch the plastic film of the 2x2 too much and it can be difficult to actually see the details of the coins through the distorted plastic, and scanning/phoptographing an ancient through a 2x2 is nigh on impossible. So for ancients, I use 2x2-sized flips (the ones with two pockets, you put the coin in one pocket and a piece of paper or cardboard with info about the coin in the other pocket). The flips I use are rigid mylar which doesn't bend easily, keeping the surface flat and easy to see through. Plus, the coins can easily come out of flips if you want to photograph them, display them or examine them in hand, without worrying about removing staples or trashing the 2x2.

I also use the same flips for "modern" coins that are "ancient-like", such as those big chunky Russian copper kopeks.

I use the carboard holders as well, but only to my most valuable and finest coins. There's no way I can putt my whole colelction in cardboard holders.

I'd like to store my coins in a nice and professional way, but still not too expensive. My solution works great for the moment, because it allows my collection to grow and I don't have to buy new things all the time, nor to re-organize all the time.

If it's not to much trouble, I'd like to see a hint of how you are storing your coins. My greatest fear is that I'll destroy my coins over time...

Mine are all stored in 2x2's and filed by country in cut down A4 paper boxes. Each box can hold about 500 coins.



Steve

On my coffee table in albums. Is my address in my signature? Hope not.

I am particular about my collection. Unless something is very special, or has sentimental value, it gets 2/2'd and bindered. I store the cased stuff in my night table, everything else in a nice 4 inch Rugged Staples Binder.