Question About Preserving Zinc Coins With Errors : (

If you haven't noticed collectors are rather over protective and have a tendency to overplay actual flaws.

The deterioration isn't going to destroy everything quickly or even in the next couple decades in most cases and some will last for centuries like old coins did. Slabs will save some people deem worthy, capsules can as well and so on.

If anything the people who take better care of them will be more likely to be rewarded in the long run price wise

When zinc is exposed to the atmosphere (carbon dioxide), it quickly tarnishes and forms a layer of zinc bloom or Hydrozincite (zinc carbonate). This layer helps prevent further deterioration of the zinc.

The splitting of the copper plating on post 1981 Lincoln cents usually led to an exposed zinc core which in turn formed this protective layer. If that coin went into circulation, the normal use would cause that protective layer to be removed and a process of reformation would begin again. The continuous handling of the coin would have a recurrence of these events, but with an increasing size of the affected area.

Basically you would protect it in a airtite, slab, 2x2, coin flip, something, and leave it alone for the next forever to limit the exposed zinc getting worse and worse as the hydrozincite that forms on the exposed zinc gets disturbed or knocked off and some more surface zinc is sacrificed to cover the exposed zinc again.

It is what it is with zincolns. In constant circulation they have maybe 2 decades before they are a cruddy mess.

I have a 2005 zincoln with split plating around the memorial and lettering on the reverse and 14 years later of leaving it alone in a coin flip it hasn't changed much at all since finding it in 2005.

It's an eventuality when the zinc is exposed, but zinc rot is much slower in a controlled environment vs. Circulation. Still though instead of 20 years or so you might get 100 years, but that's just a guess, maybe much longer if you don't keep disturbing the hydrozincite layer over the exposed zinc.

"Zinc rot" isn't really rot. It's a corrosion of the zinc to protect the zinc underneath from carbon dioxide. The more times you knock off the hydrozincite, the more zinc is sacrificed to protect it and the worse it becomes.

Can't think of any other way of stopping it except to not fiddle with it as much as possible and just leave it be to do its thing and it will slow to a crawl.

Zinc rot happens quick in circulation where the hydrozincite keeps getting knocked off the coin.

That's my 2 cents on the subject. Maybe others have something to add on how to combat it that I don't know?

What about Verdi-Care? How about lacquer?
John1