Sticky Vinyl Pages Question

The coins being in 2x2s should be ok,but 2x2s don't cost all that much to replace them just to be on the safe side.
John1

I have the same issue. Coins that I put into 2x2 flips and vinyl pockets about mid 1980s are all showing rusty staples on the 2x2s and the coins are all sticky when I remove them from the flips. A gentle wash in a water and detergent mix has some success. Vinegar does the trick on the non copper coins but obviously gives any copper coins the "cleaned" shiny look. I have not tried acetone because I need to find a way to dispose of the used fluid which cannot be dumped down the drain without affecting ABS drain pipes.

Since I have hundreds of circulation coins in these 2x2s I need to find the best way to remove the stickiness and am not going to put them back into 2x2s. Therefore, I need a good recommendation for coin pages, up to 40 per page, that will do the trick.

Question for LibraryGuy: you say the pages are sticky. But is the plastic film of the 2x2 "sticky"? Are the 2x2s physically difficult to take out of the plastic pages because they're all stuck inside the pockets?

A coin sitting inside a 2x2 which is inside a PVC album page is "mostly safe", at least in the short and medium term. That's because the sulfuric acid that causes PVC damage is trapped in the plasticizer goo, which is technically a liquid, and not volatile - it doesn't really "outgas" significantly.

However, if the album page is placed under pressure - by, for example, being the bottom page of an album full of coins sitting on top of it, or inside the bottom album of a large stack of albums (or something else heavy) piled up and sitting flat in a box or on a shelf - then there can come into play an effect known as "solvent transfer".

Solvent transfer happens when the "goo" that's come out of the vinyl, starts migrating into the piece of plastic film on the 2x2 that the vinyl page is in contact with. It takes decades for the goo to travel all the way through the film (I've never seen this happen personally), and you clearly get "evidence" that it's potentially occurring because the outside of the film becomes sticky first. So it's only a risk for coin albums that are never touched or rearranged for decades.

So: if there's no stickiness evident on the 2x2s themselves, then I would propose that your coins are "safe" for now - but keep monitoring it. If the album pages are sticky, then I would presume that it's only a matter of time before they will cause a problem, but there is no immediate danger.

If the 2x2s themselves are sticky, open a couple of them up and see if they're "sticky on the inside" as well. If they are, then yes, it's highly likely the coins are covered in goo and are probably already damaged (unless the coins are .999 gold or .999 silver). But if not, then the 2x2 has done its job at protecting the coins from harm - but those 2x2s are not re-usable and need to be disposed of, along with the album page. Coins still inside a "sticky" 2x2 will need to be changed out; if you put sticky 2x2s in a clean fresh non-sticky album page, the goo can transfer back out of the 2x2 into the new album page, restarting the cycle all over again. "Sticky" 2x2s are also more prone to getting tears and pinholes, exposing the coin directly to both air and to the goo.

To both LibraryGuy and to PMCoin: the best way to remove "goo" from a coin is an organic solvent. I'm using the word "organic" in it's chemical sense, not in it's New-Age-chemical-free sense. Acetone is proven to be the best at removing goo, but other organic solvents work almost as well: ethanol, methanol, isopropanol and gasoline can all do an almost-as-good job. Diethyl ether would probably work well too but that's generally more expensive and not as readily accessible by the public. Vinegar (acetic acid) is an organic chemical, but it's an "acid", not a "solvent". You generally don't want to put acids on your coin if it can be avoided - acids are, after all, what causes "PVC damage" in the first place.

Clear evidence of PVC sheets, which need to be replaced!

Do not use acetone for that purpose - acetone will likely depolymerize whatever plastic they've used for the 2x2 film, making the stickiness worse if not destroying and dissolving the plastic completely. I also don't think it would help much to remove the stickiness, since the plasticizer in the goo would have embedded itself into the film, altering the structure physically and chemically to cause the stickiness.

Feel free to try it, perhaps with some of those alcohol wipes we've all got sitting around from the pandemic. But I wouldn't expect to see much improvement.

I thought about it this morning and it sounded a little ridicules and risky. You confirmed it. I'm just going to change out the 2x2 as needed.

Isn't all PVC bad for coins?
John1

PMCoin

Interesting idea. You have some nice coins. Thanks