Today I was on the phone with a owner of a large coin supply store, he sounded like the manager the way he was worded with his knowledge. He said both the Cowens and the Guardhouse 2x2 cardboard flips have paper dust in them. He said more people have been actually complaining about the cowens not being cut normally. I know some people use the clear plastic flips, but wondering if they cause damage to coins? I would think a coin sliding around in there would cause slight wear, as some coins have "cabinet wear".
The only way i have personally done damage to a coin was taking it out of a cardboard flip to put in a plastic flip and a staple got it. I only use saflip's. I like being able to take my coins out when I want to use a loupe as well. And frankly, I just hate card board flips.
I don't see the coins developing wear from a slight film of dust such as described. I have been using coin flips for as long as I have been collecting coins, with great results. The flaps from a few years back were PVC, and caused far more damage than any coin flat ever could have.
I've been using SaFlips for a long, long time, and they have never presented this problem. It doesn't matter whether I store them in a zippered portfolio, 3-ring notebook or 2x2 boxes. The container is always placed "right side up". Yes, it just might present a problem if you shook the container back and forth all day long. Chris
The problem I've had with my VERY limited use of flips, is that thin coins like to slide around. A morgan dollar would have no issue, but something like a penny would.
If you actually liked and had no real complaints with the ebay flips, do yourself (and most of us) a favor and just go back to them. Problem solved.
I use cardboard flips for every coin i have thats not slabbed or in a album. Cents, dime, half dimes. I have no problem with them and will continue using them.
If you have the correct size flips for the coins you shouldn't have a problem. Maybe you need to purchase a smaller size for the "penny".
Flips for me have the added positive of having much more room for writing details a out the coin, as well as being able to store original paperwork with the coin. For ancients and medievals, I simply elieve its a better solution.
Bingo! The main problem with oversized coin flips that I can see, would be a coin dealer that travels a lot. bouncing around in the vehicle and to the show area could potentially do harm.
All cardboard 2x2s produce cardboard dust - all of them. Yeah some may be worse than others. The cardboard dust problem is threefold. 1 - the dust particles can lightly scratch and/or hairline the coin. 2 - the dust particles almost always get on the coin's surface at some point. And eventually that particle will decay, sometimes faster than others. And when it decays each particle will produce a spot on your coin. Those little black spots you often see even on high grade coins, many of them were caused by cardboard dust particles from the 2x2s. 3 - any coin can move around inside a 2x2. Eventually that movement will produce light wear on the high points of the coin. Coin flips are a bit different but still damage coins - all coin flips. Everybody knows about the PVC flips (soft ones) and not use them for long term storage. But they are harmless for a short time, such as shipping a coin to somebody. In fact for the short haul they are the better choice. That is why almost all dealers use them for shipping and short term storage. DO NOT EVER use them for long term storage. I define short term as a week at most - shipping time in other words. Saf-Flips and the others like them, archival flips, have their own problems. They are much harder, stiffer, than the soft flips. Because of that the edges at the openings of the archival flips are sharp and those sharp edges have scratched many a coin when the coin is put into the flip or taken out of the flip. Also, because the plastic of the archival flips is harder the coin is much more likely to slide around inside the flip causing wear on the high points. This produces what is called flip rub or flip wear. Even the TPGs are aware of these issues and warn against their use for these reasons. None of what I am saying is anything new and it is all very well known, has been known for many years by experienced collectors and dealers alike. It's is always your choice to use what you want to use for your coins. But to pretend that these things don't exist or don't happen, that's foolish because they do happen. These things are a large part of the reason that coin slabs and modern hard plastic holders came to be - specifically to eliminate those problems. If you want to protect your coins to the best of your ability then you should be using hard plastic holders. Or suffer the consequences.
Once you put a coin into a cardboard 2x2, leave it in there as long as possible. Nothing good will come from putting them into "fresh" ones every so often. Most cardboard flips last for 20 years depending on how they are stored, then the paper starts to yellow. No matter what method of storage you use, if you keep your coins in a safe, tupperware container, etc it's best to put a container of silica gel in there to keep humidity low. Coins prefer little variation in temperature and low humidity.
What about ammo cans for storage? I was going to buy some but they really smelled like gun-powder. could residue harm the coins?
Would not hurt to clean the ammo cans out with a detergent like 409, and dry them with the lid off for 24 hours to remove any chance of moisture. I don't recommend the coins directly touching metal. They are a cool way to store wheat cents, but put the coins in ziplock bags 1st.
That depends on the cans. If they are clean, in good shape and the seals are intact then yeah they work great. Yes it could. But the cans can be cleaned, though I'd be careful about what I used to clean them. Some cleaners could leave behind more harmful residue than what you were trying to remove with the cleaner. If it were me, I'd wipe the cans down, inside and out with a rag with acetone on it. Then leave them open overnight and allow all traces to evaporate completely. But you'd have to be careful with the lids and not allow any acetone to touch the seals as it may well break them down or even dissolve portions of them.
I use a locking Tupperware container with a silica gel insert for storing my coins and medals, and for the coins themselves I use SaFlips. When I uses cardboard 2x2s, I would spray some canned air on them before placing a coin in. All in all, seems decent enough. I prefer certified coins these days though. Sent from my SHV-E300K using Tapatalk 4
