How Not To Store Your Coins: Chapter 1

The Dangers of PVC have been discussed many times on these forums. Such additional advice is always a good thing as a reminder.

Same here.
I had to re pocket about 2,000 2x2's in album pages, made of either Mylar or polypropylene

I believe that there are still PVC based holders on the market. I do not use them myself, I prefer the 2x2 cardboard/mylar fold overs. I make sure that the coin pages I use are PVC free, they are a bit pricey, but worth it.


This might help you out a bit.

http://coinsguide.reidgold.com/holders.html

I killed my first set of Lincoln head cents, not complete by any means but some really nice coins in there, I had them in the old Brown Harco album, They have slides with pockets for each coin and a strip of paper for labeling below, a very nice design flawed by their use of non-inert materials. The early albums were all PVC, I went off to college, and when I came back I was dismayed to see my coins swimming in green goo. Ruined some very nice RD uncirculated LWCs in those. I switched over to the replacement slides made of "archival" plastic, NOPE, some thing a few years later, possibly from the PVC leeching off the main page into the slider part. Never again. PVC first forms a sticky green goop that eventually turns into a hydrochloric acid and etches the coins surface permanently damaging them. While the PVC is still in a liquid state, it can be removed via acetone, xylene and a few other nasty chemicals.

The third post down in this forum shows an almost identical situation happening in the same albums I had.
http://metaldetectingforum.com/show...hp?p=1135131

It wasn't just me, I've seen horror stories from these albums over the years, like one guy that had sets of proof Seated coins, Barber, and similar coins all ruined costing him tens of thousands of dollars in damages. Most of those coins were purchased in the late 1970's at auctions by Bowers & Ruddy and Steve Ivy, these were some monster coins at the time, I saw the aftermath at a coin show in the mid 80's when a dealer friend of mine was trying to buy them, but the losses were so great to the seller, he couldn't bear to sell at such low prices, every coin was damaged beyond repair, and doubtful they could be conserved at all. So sad.

While this album design is really nice and looked great, it is very flexible to changing your collection or custom building sets, it is not at all a safe way to store coins.

Later I tried putting the coins in air-tite capsules but that made the coins too thick to sit in the album and too much plastic to look through for each coin. I finally gave up on them (for the best).

That is the $million dollar question, as long as they don't come from China - I'd think the manufacture should be fairly honest in their descriptions.

The soft flexible plastic is generally full of PVC, it usually has a certain look to it when you hold a new one up to a bright light, there are wavy oily looking lines and patterns in the plastic.

Archival or Saf-T-Flips (Saflips) are brittle, and have sharp edges on the corners, they feel like a new playing card, they are very transparent when looking through them. They also usually have a textured edge. While the PVC flips have smooth edges (though this is no guarantee).

Most 2x2 album pages are made with PVC while the 2x2 and 1.5x1.5 cardboard flips are generally made with mylar (which is safe), it's the adhesives in the self sealing ones or staples that can be the issue with these.

Early Copper collectors like to use flannel bags that insert into 2x2 paper envelopes. Very nice protection for circulated coins.

National, Dansco and Whitman type albums use mylar slides which can potentially cause scratches when sliding open or shut and contacting a coins high points. Dansco seem to be the best, the old National albums were known for their ability to tone coins in beautiful patterns over the years of storage, but more than likely the paper content that caused this is long gone by now in older albums, I've tried using some silver dollars stored in them for over 10 years now, with no changes in color other than a very subtle yellow/gold rim toning developing.

Some older paper envelopes contain high amounts of sulfur in the paper, this can accelerate toning, sometimes nice colorful subtle colors, more often than not, dark splotchy ugly colors. Newer paper envelopes are pretty good from my experience.

Polyethylene bags (Poly Bags) also seem to be okay, you can by little bags for various coin sizes then insert them into paper envelopes or Saf-T-Flips with a lot more protection, great for Proof coins.

Capital Plastic holders are made from plexiglass and are safe, but not at all air tight. Sometimes it is very hard to get a coin in or out of them, the coins have a tendency to rotate easily in them as well.

Intercept holders and ring inserts - protection against corrosion and airborne pollutants when used correctly, they don't last forever and should be changed out when completely black in color (they start our a purplish brown color).

Bottom line - you generally get what you pay for, order from a large reputable dealer like Jake's, Lighthouse, Whitman, or Wizard and you can be sure of the product.

Store coins away from high humidity, with desiccant packs that are recharged on a regular basis. Keep coins out of direct sunlight or UV exposure (especially on copper that is Red or Red Brown). Tupperware seal top containers, Ammo cans, etc are all good ways to store albums or boxes of coins in an enclosed sealed environment.

Thanks Westcoin.
edit
Thanks Tim. I did not see your response until reading this post again.