My coins have white molds! What should I do?

NEED HELP! I encountered a problem with some of the silver coins - something like white mold started appearing! Here's what happened...

Some of my coins are housed in archival coin flips; but since I see that air can still pass through, I decided to also put them in a zip lock, but did not put a desiccant. After only a few days, I noticed that some of them have those "white tarnish" in them, particularly a Canadian maple leaf winter olympics coin. (Please see attached file to know what I mean)

Since this is a new coin (2010), I guess it's not tarnish produced by oxygen, especially if it's tightly inside the zip lock. I'm guessing it might be because of the moisture? But I made sure the zip lock is dry before putting the coins in.

Now I'm confused. Should I remove the coins (housed in coin flips) from the zip lock and just put them in my box? Or should I still use a zip lock (to minimize air exposure) but with a desiccant inside? DO COIN FLIPS WORK TO MINIMIZE AIR EXPOSURE?

To preserve their value, should I clean the coins with white marks, or should I leave them as is? Won't this "white mold" affect the silver content and value of the coin in any way?

I see this also happening (but on a smaller scale) to a Mexican Libertad and Austrian Philharmonics. They all are previously in the same zip lock. Could the mold on the Canadian Maple Leaf have affected the other coins? Thanks!

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What's the climate near you? Humid? How and where are the coins stored? A humid place? Sounds like a environmental storage problem. Keep your coins in a cool (not cold) dry place.

I'll defer to the experts on restoration.

Bummer. Looks like you may need to change where you store the coins.

 

Sure is odd that so much of something could get to your coins. You really should check out the area you keep those coins. Looks like massive moisture problems. To attempt to clean them is another problem. I suggest you try to take a few of them and submerge in warm distilled water. This may absorb some of whatever that is. If not, it may be to late, but try that first.
Make sure you push out as much air as possible before sealing a Zip Lock bag too.

 

Thanks! Yeah, it's kind of humid here. But the strange thing is that the mold only started appearing a few days after I put them in a zip lock plastic (and I let as much air as possible out). Should I let them out of the zip lock, or should I put them still in a zip lock, and do I put a desiccant in either case?

Thanks a lot!

 

A while back I encountered an OBW roll of Franklin halves that had horrific whitish spots all over them. I initially thought they were "milk spots" (I had never encountered milk spots before) and was quite excited when I stumbled on a method of removing them without damaging the coins.

As it turns out, the spots I had were mold spots...NOT MILK SPOTS. I sent one of the restored halves to NGC for grading and it came back MS65. I've since sent a number of restored coins to NGC and MS64 has been the worse grade.

I'm sure this will generate plenty of comments, but this is what works for me...

1. Take a cereal bowl and place a paper towel in it, folded in quarters.

2. Pour enough ammonia in the bowl to cover the paper towel with at least 1/2 inch of liquid.

3. Place your coin in the ammonia and gently run your finger over the surface to work the ammonia into the spots. Do this to both sides. The coin should feel very slick...or oily to the touch.

4. Add an equal amount of boiling water to the ammonia and let it sit for about an hour...long enough for the water to cool.

5. Add an equal amount of white vinegar to the ammonia/water solution and again gently run your finger over the surfaces again.

NOTE: This will also remove toning...attractive or otherwise so be sure that's what you want to do.

6. You can try rinsing the coin at this point and see if the spots are gone. In my case they weren't. I repeated this same process, but this time I added one more step.

7. The final step was to add a heaping teaspoon of baking sode to the Ammonia/Vinegar mix. The baking soda reacts with the vinegar and foams up rather dramatically. There's something about this reaction, along with the ammonia, that does the trick.

8. I again gently rub my finger over the surface of the coin, but am careful NOT to rub any unreacted baking soda against the surface of the coin.

8. I rinse the coin and it looks spectacular!!

I'm not quite sure why it worked for the spots I had. Any one or two ingredients didn't remove the spots, but this process, done together, removed the spots and left a beautiful mint luster bloom.

NOTE: Never do this on anything but 90% silver coins. This will destroy other types of coins...especially clad coins.

I've since restore other silver coins using this method. Some with nearly black, unattractive "toning". MS64 has been the worse grade I've received from NGC on any of the restored coins.

Hope this helps...

 

.....yikes!

 

Give it a try...it works.

 

Your problem with the ziplocks is something in them or on the coins.
You have the presents of some mold/fungus in that air "kept" environment.
The minute you put something in a zip lock or other type air tight bag/ box with that much extra room the moisture (in the extra empty space) starts because it sweats a bit.
This is what is causing your problem.

 

And I double that. WOW is this place becoming a dangerous web site. In reality yakpoo do you have any idea of the possible age groups that may see this? Do you have any idea that there are different strenghts of Ammonia? Do you realize that people have respitory problems? I suppose there is always that good chance you have no idea at all of what your saying and may have copied it from somewhere. If that is the case, you really should think about all the possible problems created if this is attempted by a child.
Adding hot water to concentrated Ammonia could create some really nasty fumes in a house.
Adding baking soda to that mixture? That should really be nice for the entire house.
Rubbing a coin with your fingers and with all that stuff on them?
Why not just recommend Nitro Glycerine? Placing that on coins and tossing them also gets rid of spots.
Don't mean to sound pessimistic but I've seen way to many people sent to hospitals from such unsupervised experimentations that are not properly explained for safety.

 

FWIW, IF it really is mold, which I doubt, acetone will kill and remove the mold. However, it will not repair any damage already done to the coin.

 

Like I said...this will destroy non-silver coins. I've had some Franklin rolls whose end coins were were black. I was able to restore these coins to BU with (and this amazes me, too) beautiful cartwheel luster. It's been over a year and they still look great...NGC seems to agree.

If you're bored and have a low value coin that might benefit, give it a try, you might be pleasantly surprised...I was.

 

You're right..."open a window" and "don't use ammonia if you have respiratory problems". Please read the label and take the same precautions you would use to clean your toilet. :thumb:

 

....no comment. i'm just playing with the smilies that i thought i didn't have.

:hail::smile:headbang::bow::mouth:hya::thumb::kewl::whistle:

 

LOL @ nitro glycerine and grizz!

 

I am curious about the origin and time frame of the coins before inserting into a zip lock bag. Did they all come from the same dealer or supplier? What were the coins in when you received them, before putting into archival holders, and especially the 2010 coin which I assume was recently released. That is very fast reaction for such a large area.

Jim

 

This is NOT mold! It is not biological in nature, it is simply a surface residue. Terminology is important in numismatics because using the wrong words can influence collectors to perpetuate improper terminology.

The residue is simply due to improper storage. Based on what you've claimed thus far, I must say I'm surprized though.

 

Never clean, but conserve.

Following the solvent polarity ladder to attempt conservation:

1) water
2) acetone
3) xylene

If these are unsuccessful on the proof, leave conservation to a professional or sell the coin(s) for bullion value. If you were to follow the "ammonia method" described above, you will end up with an obviously cleaned coin.

 

You should apply for a job at NCS! LOL :goofer: