Is This PVC Leakage?

Thanks Mike. The circles in the adjacent pockets (if that's what you mean) are from the Lincoln cents I had in this album for 20+ years. The cents are all ok with no residue, I thought the circles were just left due to indentation from the coin and/or scratches from the rim of the coin. Wouldn't they be green if it was PVC? The pocket in the middle never had a coin in it. Sorry for dumb questions, I'm not an expert here. Thanks for your help.
Kevin

Sounds like PVC to me.

The wet you are seeing is likely the plasticizer (the softening agent) off gassing from the PVC. On the inside it has nowhere to go so it condenses and you see like a wet film. As the PVC ages it loses plasticizer and becomes more brittle.


To test it you would need to destroy one.

If a piece of the plastic floats in water, it is not PVC. Make sure it isn't an air bubble floating it either. If it sinks, it may be PVC.

If it sinks, you will need to light it on fire. If you get a green tint to the flame, that shows the chlorine and proves it is PVC. You will also get a horrible smell of hydrochloric acid. It is offensive.


The shower curtain smell test works too if you know that smell. That smell is the plasticizer off gassing. It used to be the original new car smell, but we fixed that with low volatility plasticizers. Then people complained about missing the new car smell so now it is put back in as an additive, but it isn't the same plasticizer smell, still using the low volatility as it reduces fogging on the windshield in cars.

So I lit one of these slides on fire this morning and I didn't see any green tint to the flame, on the contrary it was bright orange. The slide burned black and dripped away for the most part and there was no offensive smell, just the smell of plastic burning. If there is some PVC in here it appears to be very little. Thoughts? Like I mention above Id like to use this because I can easily customize it and save some $ on buying a new album but don't want to use it if it's definitely PVC. I had a Lincoln set in here for 20+ years with no apparent issue to any of those coins. Thanks for the help here I really appreciate the expert opinions.

If you left any coins in those for that long and no damage, no PVC.

Yes it certainly just dripped away when it burned and there was no offensive smell. How would it have melted if it had PVC in it?

Thanks everyone for the expert opinions and direction here. I feel pretty comfortable that there's no PVC in these or at least not enough to cause any damage. I'll give them a try and keep an eye on the coins.

Thanks again!
Kevin