I'm planning to put my state quarters map in a frame when it's filled. Is there any danger in using a regular picture frame with glass over the coins? With all of the discussion about harmful materials like PVC I've never seen anyone mention whether glass is safe or not. Thanks.
Glass shouldn't do anything at all to coins. Only thing to worry about is to make sure moisture doesn't get inside of it.
Of more concern than the glass, which is harmless, is the material that will be holding the coins. I'm assuming that you will be using something similar to an album page to place the coins into and then frame that. Usually this is a paper product of some kind, and almost all paper contains acids and/or sulphur and other chemicals. That's why coins tone when you place them into albums. Now what you might do is to get yourself an actual album page that is made of archival quality paper. These pages don't have the chemicals, acids and sulphur. Next you need to consider the frame. If you want wood, certian woods put of chemicals too - as do the glues, stains and varnishes on the wood. So I would recommend a metal frame. All too often collectors forget that the most common everyday items can and will be harmful to coins. At the very least, they will cause toning. Now if you like toning - that can be a good thing, sometimes. For even then you never know how that toning will turn out - it could be quite ugly. Just some other things to think about.
So glass is fine then? Cool. These are just P mint circulated quarters and are already in the map that my wife gave me as a gift in 99. Are you saying the paper in the map might be harmful? I can't stop using it and break her heart, right? I also started a more serious BU collection of Ps and Ds, currently in coinsafe tubes which I'll store in another way at some point, but the map collection started out as just fun when I had no knowledge of coin collecting. The metal frame sounds like a good idea. Thanks.
Which albums specifically? I had a Harris album with the sliding mylar windows but took it back because I was afraid of scraping or scratching the coin faces. I then considered the Harris 5 port ("frosted"?) plastic holders but I don't know what to store them in and it seems like the coins could rotate and disturb the orientation. I then thought of Airtite holders and the six-page albums with display cards but that's pretty expensive. I kind of like the Coinedge/Coinsafe option but now I'm seeing people say three ring binders are bad, and I'm wondering about those Coinsafe album pages. If I had proofs I could justify the Airtite route but I don't want to spend a fortune on BUs. I just want to keep them reasonably safe and be able to see obverse and reverse. It finally occurred to me that I don't know how I'll wind up displaying my collection in the end. Maybe I'll want easels or frames or something else, but I'm more into the collecting and viewing of these coins rather than just storing them away for investment purposes. I'll probably just want to look at them and show them off rather than sell them for a profit.
Glass is inert, but be careful of moisture and also temperature exchange between the glass and coins when touching. In reality, though, as others have mentioned, the other stuff in the backing is more of a threat. But, I say frame them and enjoy them. They are not rarities, and you will have your other sets stored away.
