Do air tite ring type holders come assembled in the holder?

That's my point. LOL Each time you open and close an airtite you remove a molecular layer of the polymer.

Let me put it like this...say you have a coin worth $10,000 and the coin is exposed to 100% RH and corrosive gases 24/7 while being stored. Would you re-use the airtite it's stored in after you opened it to take some pictures?

 

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Hunt: Another way to put it: even though the holders are not air tight, contain no seal, can be opened and re-encapsulated, it is a mute point to argue the unproven validity of the first encapsulation vs a later encapsulation with the same holder as it defeats the entire purpose of protecting your coin by having chosen to place it in such an encapsulation device to begin with. It doesn't matter how it clasps shut the 10th, 100th, 1000th time as it undermines the intended use of the product, in which case this is the wrong product for you to be using.

 

I would personally choose to have a $10,000 coin encapsulated by a TPG and stored in a climate controlled vault.

 

Dont you think in some climates like arizona, florida, nevada, middle eastern countries (they collect coins over there?), if people improporly stored em, dont you think the plastic would crack by the 1000th use lol? Way off topic i know.

 

No, the material is stable. 1000th uses is not proper use of the device. Where the customer chooses to place the product, be that on a warm or cold place upon this earth, the sunny side of planet Mercury or plopped down on the face of the sun, and how they (mis)use the product apart from its intended use of encapsulating a coin for simple reversible protection (free of need of tools for such protection or reversal) they are not normal circumstances for this products intended use.

 

You could just save some money and use 1 half of the airtight at a time.
Just drop in your coin in the bottom half of an airtight and then pour clear acrylic resin over the top and let it harden.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5916076_make-clear-acrylic.html

 

I think it is an acrylic plastic. My associated college doesn't open the supply room for several weeks yet, but here is the experiment I would do, so maybe someone else with availability would like to try it.

First I would label one air-tite right out of the package #1 with a permanent marker. Then I would take a second air tite and label it #25. This one I would assemble and disassemble 25 times ( you can always do one #100) later if you wish). Make up a solution of water and a water soluble strong ink ( I like Cyan ink jet ink for bulk refills). Fill to the top of the bottom portion of each of the 2 air tite( can flow over a little). Close securely.Dry the outside. Put each into a petri plate deeper than the air tite. Pour 2% melted agar solution ( if you are in a medical lab, you can use nutrient agar) until it covers the air tite. After the agar cools, keep covered and occasionally measure the amount of colored ring appearing around the air tite. May take a while.

1. If amount of color produces the same amount of colored ring ( mm from edge of air tite) for both, ~ No difference due to # of uses.
2. If one is different than the other : if #25 is greater than # 1, Usage reduces the fit and allows more leakage.
if #1 is greater than #25, the manufactured edge leaks more until smoothed by repeated use.

3. If no leakage, you either didn't fill the capsule to the top or other error .....Or they really are quite tight.

 

Should add, agar is often found at Asian food markets ( Algae derivative, Agar agar.) and it dissolves at boiling in water. Dissolve slowly and watch it doesn't boil over.

 

This presents a problem with contact damage to the coin which most of us should be adverse to, especially that $10k coin from Thad's example... it just plain defeats the purpose of protection and isn't reversible like the product being discussed. LOL! Also, Air-Tite Holders, while not often viewed as cheap, are well worth the protection they provide.

 

Thanks Jim. I am confident in my experience with and use of Air-Tite Holders such that I do not need to prove/disprove by scientific experimentation that which the company and it's patent product have already provided to me in the way of coin protection and display. The above discussion doesn't weigh upon me nearly as much as do the miniscule and unreal concerns of misuse of product that seem to concern those battling the product attributes that it does or doesn't actually have: a seal, true air tight protection, damage incurred from PVC-free inert foam rings, repeated opening/closing, etc. Yet, I'd love to see the results should someone actually fulfill the steps of your proposed experiment.

 

What about outer space?

 

Outer space is a vacuum.

 

......and isn't a vacuum devoid of air? Hunt stated that nothing is 100% airtight.

 

Space is devoid of significant enough amounts of 'air' as we need to breathe and sustain life, but space is not without gases and particles adrift, many of which may be radioactive, that could effect materials exposed to such things. However, with the serious lack of oxygen in space, oxidation, a major effect that Air-Tite Holders most attempt to prevent on the metals of coins encapsulated in their holders, is seriously reduced in the vacuum of space.

 

Ahhhh....come on....my question is purely hypothetical. That answer is a cop-out. LOL

 

Well you've been taking the scientific approach with your conditions up to this point, so why distort the factors just to create a winning hypothesis now?

 

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Ha, I did think of that luckily, or it would read "Thad and Jim "

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Creative thinking! LOL

What if those microscopic bumps are so small that the heat generated during compression actually melts them creating an even better seal?

Didn't think of that did ya Doug?

 

Because I like you and want to keep you sharp.