When going thru my grandfather's old coins I noticed that he liked to use old prescription pill bottles to hold some of his multiples. Do you know if the plastic used would/could hurt the coins or are they ok left alone?
I'm not 100% certain, but I would think medication bottles would contain inert plastics so as not to contaminate meds within that are usually porous and absorbent. Plastic film tubes are the same because gelatin based films will absorb materials from their surroundings easily. If Rubin were here he could answer that though. Guy~
The brown ones I have are polypropylene (#5). I believe that is OK for coins. I also have some white ones that are HDPE (#2). I am sure those are good for coins. Another bottle I have is PETE (#1). I am not sure about it, but since it is used in coke bottle, etc. my guess is that it is safe.
Since his grandfather put them in the tubes, if there were any reaction, it is most likely long over. I would not be surprised if the positive effects of the sun blocking has more than made up for any possible damage by the medicine. Beside that, you have no idea which medicines (most are not going to react) they had or how (how well) they were cleaned.
My grandmother used pill bottles to store coins in. She must have either washed or wiped them before putting the coins in. The old easy-open bottles make good containers for coins and I use them.
DARN, beat me to that one. However, those coins probably will not have any headaches either. Now if they contained Viagra, those coins may do something else. There are some really nice laws about the containers that house medications. The chances that if those bottles do not harm people, they will have little effect on coins. HOWEVER, the medications that were in them possibly could have some effect on metals inspite of the vadt that they are safe for people. For example small amounts of Sulfur could be part of a medication and everyone knows that Sulfur and Copper have a horrible history. Cyanide, as well as miscellaneous substances also may well be part of some medications. All in all I would not use any container that was not intended to house metals for coins. Better to be safe than sorry.
I use medicine tubes to store junk coins myself. Always washed them out and never had a problem with any oxidation. Medicine bottles are actually build to prevent moisture from getting in, so they work quite well.
