I totally agree with Doug. If you've got alot of money invested/spent on your collection and enjoy it as much as I do then you owe it to yourself to keep them in the best condition humanly possible. It doesnt make any sense to me to own hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of coins and not do something to preserve them.
I have mine on display on a table, I look at them everyday. The only light they get is house light, but will that still do something to them? stainless PS: what is the worse that could happen to silver? they can't corrode.
For me all common coins are put into 2x2 cardboard holders and stappled shut then put into a 4x5 sheet and into one of the zippered binders with the tiny silica packs and put on the shelf in the closet. The more valuable coins are the same deal except they have a air-tite case instead of the 2x2's. All binders are zippered to prevent coins and silica from falling out. Seems to work well and is relativly cheap to do which fits my student budget nicely thought about lightly baking the silica packs but wasn;t sure if that work to remove the retained mostiure or cause a chemical fire lol
Stainless - silver will absolutely corrode if exposed to the right conditions. Even toning will turn into corrosion if left unchecked.
I have a bunch of card-collection sheets with 9 pockets in them, and have them all in a binder. All of my coins are in there.
you can by dehumidifiers for rooms for alot cheaper and use that. http://www.canadiantire.ca/home.jsp i doubt u have a canadian tire near u if ur not in canada but a wal mart would likely carry one as well and so long as u empty the tray every so often you should be fine
That is a pitty because there is no way I can afford to do any of that. Humidity in NYC is about 90% in summer and I can't cool the house 24/7 for the coins. I have a Comic Book collection over 2 decades old that has held up. Lots of Mylar, and books stacked on each other to keep out the most air possible. I would think coins are easier. Your saying they are not and I don't know what I can do. Ruben
It is easy Ruben. I have explained this many times. Keep your coins in an enclosed space. That enclosed space can be anything from a safe to a Tupperware container. Keep the container in a dark area. Use re-chargeable silica gel packs inside the container. In high humidity areas you need to check the silica packs more often. They change color when they need re-charged. As for the temperature, why can't you keep it cool in the summer ? It is actually cheaper to keep a house cool (let your A/C run all day) than it is to try and cool off a hot house in the evening when your A/C has been turned off all day. To maintain a constant temp uses less electricity and your A/C will actually run less time than doing it the other way. I know many people don't believe this, but it is true.
Its not just that, I don't have enough air conditioning for the whole house either and we accept a temperature in the house of at least 80. Ruben
Keeping the temp constant is more important than keeping it low. As long as there are no large fluctuations, you'll have no problems.
Agreed. Where I live it gets very humid and I can attest to the fact that very high humidity and stuffy heat will rather quickly effect ones coins. I have had a few unfortunate experiences to the point where I realized that I have a lot of coins made of metal that easily corrodes down to some that are zinc or iron which can rust. I figured if I am going to possess something like this, there is at LEAST a minimum cost I need to factor in to do so without feeling irresponsible. I have some in a safe in airtites (any gold I do not worry quite so much about corrosion) with silica. With silica I use a small container with a porous cloth and buy a big jug of it that lasts a long time. So these coins are in the dark in the bowels of my home in a pretty controlled environment more or less. Given that some coins I have spent 50 years in an ashtray in a desk drawer, my treatment of them is at least an improvement. The rest of them are in a desk I have that has many drawers with velvet lining. The desk is one that encloses the top drawers and desk top so I keep the more common coins in non-PVC holders in rows with silica below and above most of the other coins, not common, not terribly rare. They in a room that is pretty constantly the same temp as I do as is said above with the AC. In a place that is hot and humid it gets so hot that if you turn your air off when you leave, you come back and you are sweating for some time until the temp goes down. In the heat of the day its always chugging to keep it cool and it cant keep up some times. The only coins out are a few fake roman coins I use as decoration and the ones I am photographing and cataloging...wont kill them to be out for a bit here and there. I would rather be able to have them all out and showing and not locked away but its not the best idea.
Well I'm not heating the house to 80 degrees in winter Ok - You've convinced me the best thing to do is to just save all my coins by putting them back into circulation, especially the ANACS MS67 1936 Mercs, and my Roosevelt quarter gold eagles. Ruben
Well once their clean can I send them for grading. I know there is some statistical probability that I'll get an MS 70 out of one of them. Ruben
BTW - I'm willing to bet the inside of a cement mixer is cool and humidity free. Better yet, we can put them in Cement. Or the Freezer. I can keep them in the Freezer. They'll fit there. Ruben
mrbrklyn-saw your post on comic storage. Paper requires different conditions than metal. Too low humidity will make paper brittle, but coins love this. Also, do not put coins in freezer. When u take them out, condensation will form inside the holder. PH of cement will also cause problems. I suspect you already knew this though. Closets in spare rooms are good for constant temps. Use a good gel pack and a sealed container and u will be fine. GD-giving away another clue about yourself I see.