So Preston begged me to buy a 1972 mint set sealed in the Fed plastic from a web store (not eBay). It came today and I'm disappointed because the 1972 S has a black finger print on it. Should I keep it because it's rare (ha ha) or call to complain? Second: I bought Preston some double flips but I don't know how to use them. I have gathered that there is cardboard involved but I don't know what to do with it. The ppl at the coin store told us to not put the coins in the binder page slots without the 2x2s so that's what confuses me about the flips. And finally: what makes the flips better than the 2x2s in the binder pages? I'm so confused lol. Thanks in advance if any of this made any sense
A plastic flip typically has two 2" x 2" pockets. The flip begins 2" x 4" & you fold it in half so that the two pockets are back-to-back. Typically a coin is put in one pocket & a piece of paper (card stock) is placed in the other pocket. I'll try to get you a photo or link depicting a flip. Only use flips that are PVC free. PVC is a plasticizer that makes the flip soft & flexible. Soft & flexible is not good for long term archival storage of coins. The PVC can out-gas & get on the coins if they are stored for extended time in the soft flip. You should use only hard brittle flips that are designed specifically without the softening plasticizer. Basically, if you open the package of flips & it smell like a shower curtain, then they probably are soft & should not be used for extended storage. (They would only be good for short term storage or mailing of coins).
Close, PVC stands for PolyVinylChloride, which is a clear plastic that is actually very hard, but can be made soft and pliable by adding a plasticizer. The plasticizer could damage the coins, and the PVC will decompose with age, releasing HCl (Hydrogen chloride gas which makes hydrochloric acid when dissolved in water) which can damage your coins. Polyester is used to make flips since it is pliable even when not plasticized. The coin is put in one side and paper with information can be put in the other side. I noticed in one of your pictures that Preston also has some 2x2 foldovers. These are of course used to sandwich the coins and the plastic here is pretty much always polyester. One thing that I have done that I am sure people will criticize is to sandwich a coin in a foldover 2x2 and put it in an album page without stapling it. This allows the coin to be easily removed from the 2x2 but still keeps it protected.
Holy moly! While visiting some family I took Preston to the bank to get a few rolls of pennies and he asks the teller if she has anything else special in her drawer. She pulls out a bank envelope of $2 that we can look thru. He found 10 consecutively numbered $2 bills. We bought them :hail:
If you are going to buy things along the line of a 1972 US mint set then it would be best to establish a relationship with a local coin shop. These items are rather inexpensive, but shipping will add a disproportionally large percentage to their sales price. You have received good information on the 2x2 issue.
Here is a photo depicting a 2" x 2" flip with coin & paper insert. Normally, the printing on the paper is inserted so that it can be read from the same side that you are viewing the coin. This photo depicts the paper insert facing the other side. You will quickly recognize the difference between using the flip with paper insert VS using a 2x2 holder. You can write information on both the 2x2 and the paper insert. However, with the 2x2 holder, you can view both sides of the coin without removing it from your album.
But doesn't just placing the loose coin in there eventually damage it with exposure to air and moisture? This is what the coin shop guy warned us of doing when preston just started plopping foreign coins into the binder pages.
You first put the coin into either a plastic flip or a cardboard 2x2. You can write identifying information on the paper insert or directly onto the cardboard 2x2. Then, you place the flip or the 2x2 into the plastic pages. Here is a typical photo from my collection. These particular books depicted are from Dansco. The Dansco plastic pages hold 12 coins per page. Most of my coins are in standard 3-ring binders. The 3-ring binder plastic pages hold 20-coins per page.
One reason for putting the coins into a holder before putting them into the binder page is that most often the binder pages you encounter will be made of plasticized PVC. It is possible to get archival polyester pages but usually what you will see are PVC.
Trying to keep objects away from moisture and air is difficult. We live under an ocean of air. That air (in most of the USA) contains appreciable amounts of moisture, otherwise our lungs would dry out. Admonitions for keeping REALLY rare coins include sealing them into containers with moisture removing compounds or devices (dessicants). For some museums, they go a further step in filling the storage containers with nitrogen or one of the noble gases. This last step is impractical for most individual collectors and of somewhat dubious value. On the other hand, we want to preserve things resonably so that we can enjoy them all our lives and that our decendents can enjoy them too. Putting a coin in a flip or a 2x2 and then putting that in a slide page is insulating it from a lot of the environment (which includes oxygen, moisture and other degrading gases and vapors we live amidst) and stabilizing it. If a coin is just placed in the slide page, it is more suceptable to the atmosphere since the slide top is really open. The last slide pages I bought were from Staples and say "PVC free, latex free, acid free, archival quality" I tend to trust that for my non-world class collection. Happy collecting.
