How Did They "Store" Coins In The Good Old Days ?

Vanbroj does make a valid point though....antique furniture dealers always look for properly oxidized ( patina ) surfaces on secondary wood so just storing them in a drawer wouldn't keep them from toning up. In fact I would think that outgassing from the wood resins and finish would give fumes that would speed up toning. Makes me think that just about any pre-20th century silver coin in un-toned or un-tarnished condition and "mint new" have likely been dipped or cleaned. I mean heck...grandmas sterling teapots would turn black in a few years...so why not the coins?

Honestly like mentioned I think those coins have just been cleaned. Its hard to believe a coin went 200 something years raw without someone cleaning it along the way. In fact in the older days way back when cleaning was the preferred thing to do to coins to get them to look nicer

A lot of the best coins were wrapped in tissue paper, and later on, in celophane.

Museums store their coins in trays in cabinets.
I consider that to be an antiquated approach, with cabinet friction, and gassing out of animal glue over decades, being a problem.

I you want to be serious there are better approaches available to the modern coin collector. Screw capsules and slabbing come to mind.

As far as tarnish goes, I have dug up silver coins that were as bright as any you would see anywhere. I can't think of any silver coin I have dug up that was tarnished, unless maybe it was already tarnished when it went in the ground.

Also back in the day a lot of coins were placed in Mason jars and sealed with wax and then buried. Now I realized that this was not done with an eye to collecting coins. However, when they were dug up 20 to 100 years later many were preserved for one reason or another.

Coins in desk drawers that were covered by papers or clothes did not have too much contact with air and sunlight or water vapor. I also collect "paper' and paper stored in such a manner can be really awesome.

My Gr Gr Grandfather was a coin collector, he was born in 1790. His collection was in a series of wood cases with glass tops and velvet or cotton cloth on the bottom. The coins were displayed raw on top of the cloth. Some coins had little boxes like ring boxes that you would get from a jeweler. I saw a stella once that was in such a box that had the words "Happy Birthday" embossed on them.