My grandmother passed several months back. When I came home, I returned with grandma’s coin purse that held her small coin collection. I was having a grandma moment tonight, holding her coins and thinking of her as a young vibrant woman when suddenly something hit me. Grandma had two pristine Kennedy halves in that change purse. Like many back then she likely set these aside to be admired years later. It happened that she wrapped the two halves in wax paper. The same stuff you wrap baked goods in. It just struck me that the waxed paper has done quite an exceptional job at keeping these two halves as fresh as the day she wrapped them up. No real point here other than how incredibly simple and effective her method of preservation was at keeping these coins so nice.
I'm surprised that out of all things it was wax paper that kept it original. Last year I found a coin hoard that my dad had made while he moved from Mexico to the US. He put some of the coins in Ziploc bags and they came out with that nasty green PVC stuff. Luckily the actually valuable coins didn't suffer its effects.
Interesting timing for this post. I just returned with some of my grandfathers coins and currency from his home. He passed about 8 years ago. He was not nearly as careful as your grandmother but I have been able to salvage several beauties from his collection such as this one:
Definitely didn't think of that. When my Grandfather passes my family has already decided that I will be the designated "collection analyst" deciding what is the best thing to do with what. He rumored has a BU "22 Peace Dollar wrapped in fancy tin foil.
PVC residue must have been on coins before they went into Ziploc bags. Genuine Ziplocs are made of polyethylene, not PVC. Polyethylene is as inert as it gets when it come to reacting with metal. Also possible a reactive vapor entered the bags during storage. Cal
My grandpa put his coins in small boxes with cotton balls cushioning them. Of course it prevented them from bouncing but not really rubbing up against each other.
I’ve posted this before, but. . . This is the most valued coin in my collection. It was passed from my grandfather to my father and then to me. I sent it for grading (hopefully) to be preserved forever in time.
