flood damaged collection

I am creating this on behalf of my grandmother who owns a rather large coin collection left over from my grandfather. last week about 2 feet of water covered about half of the collection, this includes many state quarter proof sets from the 2000's and $25 bags of quarters and alot more i have not been able to catalog yet. they were under water for about 2 days the few poof sets i have gotten out have water in the plastic but some other single proofs are water free in their single containers and the bags or still damp. im wondering what i should do to preserve the collection as i have no understanding i came here for advice.

should i break open the proof sets and bagged quarters or should i try putting them in a dehydrator to see if i can purge the water out of them without opening the bags,
i also would like to know if the resale value of the coins diminished due to being in a flood, because a difference in value could be claimed on her flood insurance.

 

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Sorry to hear about the problem. I hope someone here can offer some good advice.

 

Putting them in a dehydrator is unlikely to help; it'll just cement residue onto the coins. The best hope is rinsing in distilled water.

The collection certainly has lost value, but estimating the lost value will be non-trivial. If these are mostly non-silver proof sets, they're probably worth face value at this point; silver would be worth melt. You might be able to claim loss on that basis against the original purchase prices, but I don't know how you'd go about legally supporting it.

...actually, resale value of proof sets isn't that much better than face/melt anyway, so if you could claim this as a flood-related loss, you might well end up with more money than if you'd tried to sell the original, undamaged sets. I'm not sure about the ethical ramifications here, but it's an interesting situation.

 

The bags are probably useless at this point. Likewise for the packaging of the proof sets. It would probably be better to open all of them and "PAT DRY" each coin individually to minimize further surface degradation. If any of them show signs of spotting, it might also help to give those a dip in acetone, MS70 or some similar product. You didn't specify whether the proof sets were silver, clad or both, but about the best you can do is place individual coins in either 2x2's or flips. Good luck!

Chris

 

not sure if these are insured... but if it were me, I would open everything, rinse, and allow to dry. Stuff in the water (including the water itself) will only continue to damage the coins.

 

well im not sure which ones are damaged since we have not gotten them out of the house yet, i know their is proof and loose coins and coins in books with years for different mints, the only ones i have are 5 non silver proof sets and about 10 bags of state quarters, then we have about another 200 pounds of coins to remove from the house and i know one of the cabinets is dry so should be fine the other one i dont remember what was in it and we will be getting it out tonight hopefully

 

Interesting forum handle.

Stephen King phan?

 

2 days is not a lot of time for chemical reactions to work. If there will be no continuing insurance claims by your grandmother, 'cleaning' should be fairly successful. If there is an insurance claim, be sure to do what they ask before doing any cleaning. Anyway take photos before.

I would discard any cloth or wood containers. Divide the group into ' evidence of water exposure' such as still wet and 'apparently sealed'. The apparently sealed should be put into a vacuum dehydrator or make a reasonable facsimile with a large sealed plastic tub containing containers of desiccating chemicals ( coin stores, gunshops, hardware stores, etc. and check if needed recharging.

For the obvious ones exposed to flooding , rinse with clean drinking water well, and a final rinse with distilled water. The coins that still show debris/dirt, put aside as they will take more care to not damage cleaning . Option to sell as is on ebay.

I would rinse all coins with acetone, as it will remove much organic material as well as any remaining water. Do not rinse with any more water. stand or hold upright for the acetone to flow to the edge and evaporate. Do in open area away from flames.
Do not rub any coins.

Wait several days and re-evaluate.
Best of luck

 

This sounds like a lot of work for State Quarter Proof sets and state quarter mint bags and I do realize that its the grandfathers collection but if that is what the collection primarily consists of it could prove to be an effort that simply is not "worth the effort".

I think it would be best for the OP to catalog everything before undertaking a restoration on coins which may ultimately have little value in the long run.

For example, a 1999 CnClad proof set that got wet would have the original cardboard box destroyed. Since the plastic lens themselves are not sealed, water would in turn destroy the inserts which would leave the OP with nothing more than common proof coins which bring very little value in the after market.

I'm not trying to be harsh as much as I'm presenting the practical approach.

Catalog first then evaluate what needs to be done.

 

Youre sol on the bags and the otter of the proof sets

 

I'd take Desert Gems advice as he is a chemist . Best of luck to you . Also never rub a coin with anything , especially proofs .

 

This is what got wet apparently lots of bags rolled quarters and half dollars and some quarter and silver proof sets

 

Just as a side bit of information, here is what happened to some flood damaged nickel composition coins of mine:

http://www.cointalk.com/threads/toning-a-question-for-the-purists.219379/

 

Only one "d" though.

Chris

 

Red Drum

 

Yeah, red drum is a fish, but the Stephen King movie was "m-u-r-d-e-r" spelled backwards.......one "d'.

Chris

 

Unfortunately, these all look to be modern coins which really have little to no value in the current market.

Attempts to restore them would be an effort in futility from a "collectible" standpoint as most are considered worth only face value.

The Rolled coins are ruined since you cannot "unroll" them to dry the coins as their value only exists as "original rolls". As such, they will simply rot in those paper rolls.

The bagged coins, once removed from the bags, are nothing more than face value coinage and if left alone, will suffer the same fate as the rolled coins.

The proof coins will probably suffer the same fate since they are nearly worthless without that packaging.

Had there been some GSA Dollars or some other 90% Silver coins then they would at least have intrinsic metal value.

I do see multiple 2004 Silver State Quarter Proof Sets whose coins could be salvaged through proper conservation but the retail on them is not much higher than actual melt value.

However, the choice on what to do is totally up to you.

 

I did not know this.

 

All the good coins were up higher so we're lucky in that regard

 

I guess you would have to read the book to realize this. It was repeated (in type) over and over and over..........redrum.....redrum.....redrum.....redrum!

Chris