In another chat room I'm seeing a discussion regarding tarnish & toning. One poster is suggesting that "Tarnished silver coins have a fractionally smaller quantity of silver in them. Never clean a tarnished coin... It will just tarnish again." I know not to clean coins, but is this accurate? And if so, does the reference to reduced silver content also apply to toning? Also, he suggests that air is the culprit & to wrap each coin in plastic wrap, then a ziplock bag & suck out the air? What do any of you experts recommend for coin storage, not in a slab?
He's correct, the difference is that silver is turned into something else, silver oxide or silver sulphide, when it tones. But you'd need an instrument costing a fortune to be able to detect the difference in weight if you could tell at all. The fraction would be so small that I don't know if can type that many decimal places There are literally hundreds of threads and posts on the subject of coin storage here - just do a search to find them and read what you find. Bottom line is though, there really is nothing that is airtight that can be used for coin storage - even the other poster's suggestion is not airtight and will may make little if any difference at all.
Tarnished Silver coins have nothing to do with a smaller quantity of Silver in them. The Silver is still there as it was when first made. Only now some of it has combined to form a compound made up of the Silver and other materials. As to never clean a tarnished coin because it will just tarnish again. True as to never clean any coins. However, as to tarnishing again. So what even if it dose. You bath even though you'll get dirty again. You blow your nose even though it will fill with stuff again. You cut your finger nails even though they'll just grow again. Now if you really want to stop the toning and tarnishing, encase them in liquid plastic. I made a pen holder with liquid plastic in the late 50's with cents and dimes inside. They still look brand new just now difficult to spend.
