NTR Silver bars protected from physical damage and oxidation?

NTR says that place their bars in: polyvinyl chloride (PVC) casing

Doesn't PVC damage Silver? http://coins.about.com/od/caringforcoins/f/pvc_damage_faq.htm

How come NTR places their Silver Bars in PVC? :rollling:

 

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I would not care since its bullion. Any "PVC damage" would not be as bad for bullion as severe oxidation, since oxidation can lead to weight loss, while pvc damage would get burned off on resmelting.

PVC free plastic would probably crack in time, so I am not sure what alternative for a protective cover there would be.

Chris

 

The Chinese Mint had this problem with early gold Pandas. The PVC in the plastic vacuum pack would affect the coin and the recommendation on these older Pandas is to cut the plastic off. Modern Pandas are now shipped in a plastic vacuum pack that has no PVC and doesn't crack as far as I know. Pandas in this plastic are more desirable than ones without as it helps with verification. American Gold Buffaloes are also shipped in this kind of plastic.

 

Good information. I do not know much about those issues.

I would agree PVC on any kind of collectible coin would be bad. Do you feel PVC on bullion bars is much of an issue? I guess I am assuming its just an inexpensive way to prevent oxidation. If it is just bullion, I cannot see the harm, but I could be wrong.

Chris

 

If the bar is gold, the issue I can see is the plastic would cause issues with doing an assay. Ironically mint issued plastic on coins helps with verification. Gold however doesn't oxidize. With silver, I don't know if an assay is typically needed on bars so I can't think of any issues beyond that.