"Rust" On Nickels

hmmm interesting. I have heard stories about the whitman albums causing damage and have seen it first hand on canadian cents actually.
I was given an album with many cents in it that had been placed in the album a long time ago. The cents got like striations on them, and became discolored.
I would say to of course pull the coins out and place them in flips so no more damage can be done. Are the backs of the coins messed up too?
Post a picture of some of the coins if you can. Hey if they aren't good enough for your collection you can always save them up until you get enough posts and trade them off to somebody like...IDK little old me.
I know Bad Thad has that stuff you soak coins in called verdigone or something, maybe send him a private message and see if his solution would help

In this case I am concerned about any kind of cleaning at all, since some of these coins are possibly MS. I will try to get some pictures up tonight if I have time and maybe there will be some ideas. One thing I do know is that I strongly dislike coin "albums" of any kind where a coin is squeezed into a hole.

Verdigone can't help....because there's no such product anymore. LOL

Show us some pictures. It's highly unusual that the problem is red in color. A simple soak in distilled water should always be tried first.

This is the best I can do with my current scanner....the red "rust" mostly covers the edges and spills over a bit on the rims, and as you can see around some parts of the field. The coin, like the rest, is otherwise in beautiful condition, literally some of them are AU.....such a shame

yes, thank you biokemist, I am aware of that however I have pennies dated 1938-1956 with the same substance. So the question is can nickel rust?

Please note it was stated Folders, not Albums. I've mentioned this many times in the past. Almost all Folders are made with the same system. Sheets of paper are layed out and a glue machine is dragged accross them. Then the cardboard pages with prepuched out holes are layed out on top of thoes. Now if you look at the back of those slots in any Folder, you would see a sort of shinnyness. This is the glue from the manufacturing process. NORMALLY, it does not effect coins. HOWEVER, if any type of humidity gets to that glue, it is sort of reactivated and adhears to the coins. The really older Folders were made with glues that were rather on the Acidic side and as reunited with moisture, becomes something not good for coins. If you see coins with a sort of stripping on the reverse, it was caused by that glue in the Folders. Kids famorite trick for well worn coins was to spit on the reverse and this activates the glue so the coins will not fall out.
Folders are OK for chaep, fun type of collections. Also, OK in really dry climates.


Of course. Most people think Gold is Inert but it does combine with Chlorine. AuCl3 and HAuCl4.
It also combines with Fluorine, Cyanide and dissolves in Mercury. Au2S is the normal BR/BK discoloration on Gold coins.

OK, now it makes sense because the coins are plated steel. Unfortunately, iron oxide (rust) is a VERY difficult problem for coins, one that cannot be addressed without ruining the coin. The best course of action is to arrest further development by dehydrating the coins with acetone and putting them into an air tight environment. I suspect these are not of huge value, so coins with this condition should probably be replaced if you're a serious collector.

Yes, I hate coin folder and wish they did not exist. 2x2's are OK, if I had my druthers every coin I owned would be in a capsule, but that gets a bit expensive.