Several Questions Of Storage And Corosion

First of all, cleaning the coin will make it less valuable than it is already. Remove the coins from the albums and store them in airtites or 2x2 or whatever your preference is. Then you should buy an airtight enclosure (footlocker, safe, etc) and use dessicant to control the moisture. You ask if you should remove the unc coins from their plastic? Are they graded? If so, just place them in the enclosure as is. The proof sets should be removed from their outer government paper case and stored seperately.

Hi recordsmith,
Welcome!
If you are not familiar with pvc damage, you might want to do a search on it. That doesn't sould like your problem, however. If your coins are in regular whitman albums, the culprit is likely not primarily the albums but the combination of albums and storage conditions. Whitmans in a low humidity enviroment protected from temperature extremes may cause toning over that time frame, but shouldn't cause outright corrosion. I'm not an expert, but any coins with something other than a bit of color change around the edges (and reverses- if in whitmans with the paper backing) should be carefully removed and given an acetone bath to stop the corrosion. Don't do this to copper coins however. Any valuable coins you may wish to take to a professional or send in to NGC to have conserved- this will only apply to a coin valuable enough to pay the conservation/grading fees.

Here is an experts' take:

https://goccf.com/t/51

but realize that National Dealer is speaking about coins which are valued at hundreds of dollars and up. If you have a collection where the uncirc coins are worth a few dollars and want to save them, the only way to do it is by yourself.
Use only pure acetone, in a well ventilated area. Rinse with distilled or deionized water, and wear gloves. No smoking or flames, of course!
Here's a link:

http:// (046) Not Allowed - Auto-Removed &threadid=406536

At a minimum, put them in a new album or in 2x2s. An ammo case, or something airtight, with silica gel. Or even just a dry closet where they won't be exposed to temp extremes with some silica gel packets in a shoebox-depends on what you want. (were they in an attic?)

If they are not actually corroded, you might just remove them and put them in safer storage until you read up on when to do any "bathing" or rinsing to your coins.

As far as removing selead us mint uncirc and proof coins, I'd only remove them from the "inner" mint plastic if they have an unattractive haze. Some of the outer packaging may cause hazing under some storage conditions. If you remove them from the outer packaging be sure to save mint envelopes, certificates, etc in case you want to sell them later. Sorry for the general; answer - mint packaging came in many forms over the years and "it depends"
Don

The unc and proof set holders are generally inert and do not lead to pvc contamination or corrosion. The proof and unc set envelopes and boxes will retain moisture and can, in rare instances, lead to corrosion/toping. Not that I am an expert but I remove my mint sets and proof sets and store them seperately from the sets themselves. Being in California, the humidity isn't a problem here but if I did live in a high humidity area, I would purchase a safe or airtight case and store my coins in it with silica gel. The silica gel can be recharged when it has absorbed it's limit in humiidty by baking it in the oven.

[quote]Originally posted by ageka

I think a clear difference has to be made between cleaning and dipping and simply acetone soaking


I would be interested in your opinion of the differences ?

Since the purest would consider even a rinse with distilled water to be cleaning,, certianly any chemical agent would be considered cleaning wouldnt it ?

Rick

((Dipping in principle chemically removes a layer off the coin
and will be more or less visible allthough I know somebody who dipped all his gold coins and they came all back slabbed between MS 64 and MS66))


You know thats interesting, I have seen this also, but Ive also heard of coins being body bagged as cleaned !!
I wonder why that is ? perhaps its like you say, some forms of cleaning or preserving actually leave little or no trace of the proceedure? or perhaps if it is sent to a preservation company its acceptable ?

((If you cannot see the evidence of cleaning than it was not cleaned
It may have been preserved .))

Im not sure you meant this the way it sounds ?
In this statement you apply cleaning and preservation as the same thing ? In other words preservation is cleaning just in a method that supposedly does not leave evidence of it . If I got this wrong let me know ?

I appreciate the Opinion !! Its a big help to me !!

Thanks
Rick

Hi Recordsmith and welcome to the forum.

Your collection from 13 years ago has corrosion on the dimes and quarters around the edge. Are these "Clad coins" made since 1964? I'm thinking that it may be the copper in the center edge that has the corrosion.

If the coin is a common date low value coin to begin with, than cleaning off the corrosion with have little effect on it's already low value.

BTW Ageka, would you use acetone to clean a "Clad" coin? Or will it affect the edge of the coin?