Protecting Coins

I've been putting all coins in albums for many, many years. Now all albums in zip lock bags. 20 years? No big thing. I've been doing coin collecting for well over 60 years and all coins look as they did when I first put them in albums. No air gets to the coins so the coins stay the same.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

dprice7: I am right there with you. I bought the Airtite albums and used them for my ASE collection, but want to send back the ones I ordered for lincolns/indians. PVC concerns and seems flimsy, no labels etc. Dansco or Intercept need to team up with Airtite and get a nice display set going that is archival. Where is the entreprenuial spirit? I have high grade quarters in Dansco I took out due to toning and now have in Intercepts but want to display them and I can't decide what to do??

 

I prefer the Eagle Holders which are the same size as 2x2s, hold the coin securely much better than 2x2s or Airtites-without that rim hiding ring. I have had coins in Eagle holders for over 20 years and none of them has toned, spotted or corroded even before I stored them in Intercept Shield boxes. Eagle holders unless the coin is very small or very large hold the coin snug and allow you to see all the rim detail. People express concern over using a few drops of clear nail polish to seal the larger coins as it might gas off and harm the coin, all I can say is after many years of sealing in my coins in Eagle holders not one has been harmed. The acetone in nail polish evaporates quickly and all of mine are bone dry by now, plus with such a small amount it just doesn't have the volume to reach the coins to do any imagined damage. I like the white Eagle holders so I can custom label them with clear laser printer labels and cut them to fit for a "mini-slab" look. To me they offer the best of all worlds, looks, long term inert protection, customization, excellent view of the entire coin and ease in storage. (BTW, I don't work for Eagle in any way, I just love their holders.) I think with any coin whether it is raw or in a slab, one should use dessicant and or Intercept Shield with common sense storage methods. Personally, I don't like albums where the coin is mounted directly in them as it limits the information recorded about the coin near the coin in the album. Often times only the date and mint mark are there on the album page. And unless it is an Intercept Shield album can tone or even ruin your coins over the long haul as evidenced by the many album toned coins on the market, sometimes it turns out well, other times it doesn't so why take the chance? Albums don't seem to offer the type of protection individual coin mounting methods do. If you do go with staple or self sealing cardboard/mylar 2x2s for lesser value coins, make sure they are sulfur free and acid free as this too can damage coins over time. Spend the extra money and use an Intercept Shield box to house these too as it will pay off in the long run. Just my 2 cents.

 

I'm currently assessing how I want to go about it. I've got a parnoid side of me that wants to seal everything away so tight that I can't even look at them.. but then the collector side of me says forget all that. The biggest motivator for me to store them correctly is for my future heirs.. I don't want them to get boxes full of worthless coins because I didn't take care of them.

 

I think if you choose a good holder and store it with Intercept Shield and a dessicant in good storage conditions you will not have a problem. Virginia and Tennessee are humid for most of the year, not as bad as Florida consistantly, be more than enough to worry about unwanted toning and copper coins changing color, so if you do anything I would do what I wrote in the first sentence of this reply. I too don't feel the need to look at the coins every week or everyday, so putting them away and checking them periodically is more than adequate. How have you been mounting and storing your raw coins? How about slabs?