Slabs and fire.

I don't think that you should try this at home, kids!

 

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Except Detecto. He's a "special" kid.

 

http://my.firefighternation.com/video/889755:Video:608083

 

darwinism in action! no more detecto!

 

I can't say that I'm an expert on fireproof safe rating procedures. But, ratings are usually estimated using the most extreme conditions that can reasonably be expected to occur. So, the 350 F rating is an internal temperature that will be reached if the safe is exposed to the absolute maximum temperature (over a conservatively long period of time) that can reasonably be expected to occur during a typical house fire. If your safe is subjected to a house fire, the actual conditions around the safe will most likely fall a good bit short of these maximums. Therefore, the internal temperature would probably be significantly less than 350 F. I would think that hard plastics should be OK, or at least not suffer a reaction that would cause damage to the coin. In any case, when it comes to fire protection a fireproof safe is the best option that is readily available for home use. So, even if they don't work under all conditions, there aren't any other options that will (options within reason anyway).

The easiest way to test temperature effects would be to find a slabbed coin that you don't mind destroying, put it in the oven, and increase the temperature until you start seeing an effect. Of course, the potential effects of gas released from the plastic may not be readily apparent at lower temperatures. Depends on how scientific you want to get.

 

Maybe you can burn the slab, in the safe, in the camper, and scrap it all.

 

Thanks for the link krispy, but it appears those slabs came from an actual fire. I'm looking for slabs that came out of a fireproof safe.

Another thing I wonder....slabs are not "air tight", at least I don't think they are. I wonder if the smoke enters the safe, would it "fog up" the slabs.

Rickmp, while my coins would not be the greatest loss in a fire, some of my coins I treasure dearly, because some of them were found with a metal detector, I also have a lot of old relics, that I will probably never find second examples of even I spent another 60 years metal detecting.

While coins can be replace, and so can most of my relics, the pride that I have of finding them, after being lost for decades, is not replaceable by any amount of money in the world.

 

I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but I'd be more worried about protecting my wife, children and grandchildren from the dangers of a house fire than any coin, even a one of a kind coin.

 

I don't know what would happen in a fire, but Hurricane Katrina put my coins under several feet of water. I can say that the coins in slabs were fine, but the slabs were ruined. My coins in Danscos did very poorly. Luckily some friends at NCS were kind enough to help out my poor coins. They didn't slab them, but they conserved them and put them into new Danscos for me. :thumb:

 

Thanks for that link. Having been a volunteer firefighter, that video made me say "what the...?". Their chief should have been fired.

 

It is just this concern that made me buy a fire/security gun safe, with 2300 degree and 1000 degree fabric insulation. The same they use in kilns to keep heat in, only it works in reverse. This will work pretty well, but over time can still allow the interior to reach 350 over a prolonged fire and cool down.
To me, this is too hot to risk, so I put additional Guardall safes inside, stacked on top of each other. So it's like double protection for the ceiling of the bottom one and floor of the top one. I use these as media coolers for my collection now. (Although each one has it's own dial and key as well. ) These have been tested by two places to keep the inside contents at around 250 degrees for an hour in a 1700 degree fire with cool down, on their own. These are inside my main safe. And the fire department isn't too far away so I'm not too worried about my house burning to the ground anyway. Or slabs melting on my coins.

I think 350 for an hour would melt them. That is pretty hot for plastic. But it would be interesting to know from NGC and PCGS what the melting points are for their slabs. And what duration of time it takes. I think silver would be severely damaged by prolonged 350 degree temps no matter what the slab did.

 

Maybe pyromania should be deemed the new hobby of kings...

 

I don't think they make fire proof safes that big, plus there would be the issue with lack of oxygen. I wouldn't recommend it

 

Where do I submit nominations for Post of the Year?

 

Are the two precautions mutually exclusive? Do you have to sacrifice your family in order to protect other valuables? If not, and if your coins are important to you, why not take reasonable precautions to protect them?

 

Have to agree here. What more can you do to protect your family than have smoke detectors and an evacuation plan? People are mobile and can get out in a hurry. And they arent always home anyway.
This has no bearing on how well a collection is protected. Thought and action could and should be implemented towards both.

 

Hey, even if the coins are in a fire, there is always the rock tumbler to clean the soot off.

 

I can imagine quite a lot of collectibles were destroyed by Katrina. And not everyone could end up conserving them.

 

I wasn't trying to make lite of it, just about every friend that I had lost their homes and three lost their lives. I lived in a gutted out home for nearly two years. And almost six months with no power. That's why I said that I was lucky to know some kind people at NGC/NCS.

 

The family first, pets second, everything else can burn.