Hello, I was looking through my collection of ancients recently, and have grown quite suspicious of my flips, and believe they may contain PVC. I have ordered Mylar flips just to be safe, but I am still unsure if I should give the coins an acetone wash to remove any possible residual residue. They have been in these flips for around a year, but show no signs of PVC residue, so I am not sure what I should do. Any advice is appreciated!
An acetone bath will not harm the coin as long as you know how to do it properly. It's really important to do it right.
Acetone should not hurt the coins. If your coins are copper, they develop a film that is difficult to detect in the early stages. Take a Q-tip with acetone and run it around the edge. I'll bet the Q-tip will turn shades of green. Let us know.
If the flips are soft, they are not suitable for long term storage. If the coins feel sticky, wash them with some acetone; if they are not sticky, they are fine.
Just did that on a few of my bronze coins that have been in the flips for around a year, and there was no green residue, just slight browns from encrusted dirt. I still plan to transfer to flips I am sure are safe, but I am pretty sure that’s a good sign!
Here is a pic of an insert from a group of coins I bought that someone had in a soft flip that gives you an idea what will happen.
I’ve luckily not had that level of damage yet. I discovered that my flips are uPVC so the coins *should* be fine for the time being. I’m still going to switch to Mylar flips to be 100% safe!
I have owned coins since the 1960’s and made it a point not all that many years ago to dispose of all my old soft PVC flips. I didn’t experience any pVC damage and some of those coins have been in those flips a good bit longer than a year….. You may be just fine.
