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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Publius2, post: 8410994, member: 105571&quot;]I appreciate the responses.&nbsp; Since I posted I&#039;ve been doing some research and while certainly not definitive nor expert, I&#039;ve drawn some tentative conclusions that, I believe, may help to reconcile the conflicting accounts of our experienced and knowledgeable respondents.</p><p><br /></p><p>1)&nbsp; The terms &quot;archival&quot; and &quot;acid-free&quot; are thrown around marketing efforts pretty loosely and generally seem to be equivalents in coin product circles.&nbsp; But they are not equivalent.&nbsp; In order to be &quot;archival&quot; quality, a paper product must be made of rag paper and meet certain ANSI and ISO standards.&nbsp; All other products that are made of wood pulp and are labeled &quot;acid-free&quot; may or may not meet the other standards that govern wood-based &quot;archival&quot; paper products.&nbsp; But a paper-based &quot;acid-free&quot; product must have a neutral or slightly acid pH and contain a buffering compound that neutralizes the hydrochloric acid gas released when the lignin in the paper degrades.&nbsp; So, most &quot;art paper&quot; that you buy for making labels and such that is acid-free will probably contain these buffering compounds.&nbsp; The best paper to use is a rag-based &quot;archival&quot; paper, bar none since there is no lignin to degrade at all.</p><p><br /></p><p>2)&nbsp; Who knows what companies like Lighthouse mean when they say their Intercept boxes are made of &quot;archival&quot; materials.&nbsp; Somehow, I doubt it meets the rag paper standard.&nbsp; (I mean no disrespect to Lighthouse or their undoubtedly fine products and I&#039;m not singling them out except that their statements are useful for making a point.)&nbsp; Lighthouse states that their Intercept Shield technology protects against the dangers of paper breakdown so it may be a moot point whether their paper products are rag or wood based.&nbsp; Other products with wood-based paper and without the Intercept Shield technology are probably more hazardous to your coins, but how much more hazardous?</p><p><br /></p><p>3)&nbsp; The off-gassing that comes from wood-based paper is from the degradation of the lignin in the wood base.&nbsp; Take UV light, moisture, and heat and the lignin can break down very quickly.&nbsp; For example, the cheap newsprint paper turns yellow in hours if you let the paper sit in your driveway for a day.&nbsp; But of these three elements, the one that is the worst is the UV in sunlight (or any other light source but sunlight has a very strong UV component).&nbsp; The other two, humidity and heat, just accelerate the process of lignin breakdown and development of hydrochloric gas.</p><p><br /></p><p>4) Chlorine in the paper comes primarily from the bleaching process.&nbsp; Sulfides can come from the paper-making process as well as well as from glues, dyes, tapes, inks in addition to the general atmosphere.</p><p><br /></p><p>5)&nbsp; I take [USER=112]@GDJMSP[/USER] at his word that he has witnessed damage from improper storage around and in improper materials.&nbsp; But I also take the word and experience of other responders that they have used un-certified products for decades without damage to their coins.&nbsp; How can this be?&nbsp; Well, I suspect it comes from a difference in how the products were stored.&nbsp; Keep these non-archival materials away from UV light, heat and moisture and they will not degrade at a significant rate at all and thus won&#039;t accumulate harmful chemicals at a rate/concentration that won&#039;t be flushed away when the box is opened.&nbsp; Those that keep their coins at home in a safe with a desiccant are, generally, going to look at their coins more often than those who are keeping them in a safe deposit box.&nbsp; Conditions in both locations are usually temperature controlled and both limit UV light effectively, but the safe deposit box will often (usually?) not have a desiccant and will be flushed less often.</p><p><br /></p><p>What, you may ask, am I now going to do after creating all this verbal mush?&nbsp; I am going to invest in some Lighthouse slab boxes with the Intercept Shield technology for my storage locations where the size of the Lighthouse boxes can be accommodated.&nbsp; In my other storage locations where space doesn&#039;t permit Lighthouse, I will continue to use the &quot;non-archival&quot; boxes but continue my practices of desiccant use and frequent flushing.&nbsp; One additional change though will be to eliminate paper document storage and make it separate from coin storage.&nbsp; The same basic reason why you shouldn&#039;t store your coins where you store your guns.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks again for everyone&#039;s thought-provoking responses.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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