Help! Coin Oxidation Nightmare! - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 3 / Views: 2,674
CanadianCoinDom New Member Canada 1 Posts	Posted 08/15/2016 11:44 pm Six months ago I moved into a new house and stored my coin collection in the same place I always have... in a drawer the basement. After having my coin collection sit in my new house for 6 months I pulled it out to add some more coins to it and was horrified and what I saw. Most of my once shinny copper coins have developed at least some sort of oxidation on them... even a penny in one of my uncirculated sets has a small amount of oxidation on it that was not there before. Some of the coins are so dirty now that they look as if they have been circulating for years. Take a look at what has happened to one of my coins as an example. This picture was taken in February 2016, shortly after I moved into the new house: And this picture is the same coin but taken in August 2016: As you can see, the coin has went from nice and shinny to dull and brown...in just 6 months... by sitting there and doing nothing. This has happened to many of my coins that are 50+ years old and I am quite disappointed. The picture in my example was is a 2012 Canada Loonie... I'm not so worried about that coin... I just happened to have a picture of it from when I moved in. I'm more worried about coins like my Canadian 1942 copper Nickel which was a bit shinny six months ago (like it has always been)... and now it is just a regular old brown 1942 copper nickel. Very disappointing! I have moved my coin collection to the main floor of my house thinking that maybe there is too much humidity in the basement but I'm still worried that the coins are just going to keep getting worse. Are there any suggestions on what I can do to stop this from happening or what might be causing it? Report this Post to the Staff

0xDA71D Pillar of the Community United States 1215 Posts	Posted 08/16/2016 03:11 am It looks like the coin that you have pictured is a loose coin. If you stored it in any environment where it could contact items that contain sulfur such as wood, then that will definitely react with the copper to form adverse toning. Also, the simple act of breathing on an unprotected coin will introduce water vapor, which will accelerate the corrosion process. In terms of storage, your basement is not an ideal place to store your coin collection, in my opinion. While the coins previously were good, that does not mean the basement is an acceptable place to store your coins. If there's any humidity down there, you can say goodbye to the red color in a matter of weeks. Remember: copper is a relatively reactive metal. Even professional grading/capsulation/conservation companies like PCGS and NGC do not guarantee the color of copper coins that they grade as they are so sensitive to oxidation. My advice is ~~threefold~~ fourfold: 1. Put all the coins you would want to preserve--even the already toned ones--inside a 2x2 cardboard or mylar flip. Don't expose the coins to air 2. Take the coins out of the basement and to somewhere that there is a natural level of humidity 3. Protect the coins by putting them in a bag along with a silica gel packet and a sacrificial copper coin. Sand down the sides of the copper coin so that it is red-colored and able to absorb what would otherwise oxidize the coins you have. Silica gel will also take away excess humidity. 4. If there is excess oxidation such that there are crusty green spots, use a solution such as Verdi-Care to attempt to save the coin. Hope this helps! Report this Post to the Staff
T-BOP Rest in Peace United States 18456 Posts	Posted 08/16/2016 08:29 am Report this Post to the Staff
UltraRant Pillar of the Community Norway 1358 Posts	Posted 08/17/2016 04:07 am I think especially the humidity thing is a big one. I don't know about your basement, but most basements I know happen to be a tad less isolated than the rest of the house and as such, quite a bit more humid. I fully agree with 0xDA71D. Especially: find another place in the house to store your collection. Usually the best collections get found in attics, not basements. Report this Post to the Staff
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