Storage question

Yes to the 1st question, and probably yes to the second.

There are several very common issues with cardboard 2x2s. 1 - the cardboard contains sulphur which can cause unwanted and unsightly toning to occur. 2 - the thin mylar offers very little in the way of protection so the coin can become scratched or acquire contact marks right through the mylar. 3 - the 2x2s almost always contain small amounts of cardboard dust and/or small particles of cardboard. This dust and the small particles are capable of scratching the surface of the coin during the course of normal movement of the box, album, or folder that holds the 2x2s. And even if scratches are avoided, which is unusual, once the cardboard dust or small particles get onto the coin over time the cardboard decays. And as it decays it causes black or dark spots to appear on the surface of the coin. 4 - the staples. Even if staple scratches are avoided the staples themselves are made of metal and this metal corrodes over time. And as it corrodes it releases additional gasses that usually cause discoloration to the coin.

Bottom line, cardboard 2x2s, though popular, are a very poor choice for coin storage. The Air-Tite like holders the coins come in are a far better choice for storage as they have none of these inherent problems. And they offer superior protection to the coins.

And yes, they do make archival quality albums that hold Air-Tites.

 

Both of those are bad, but there is another as well. The mylar flips, or any of the non PVC flips, are made of much harder plastic and they have sharp edges. So, unbeknownst to the owner, when they put coins into the flips or take them out the flips, the flips themselves can and will scratch the coin.

This is a very well known and all too common occurrence. It is for this reason that professional dealers only use the soft PVC flips when they sell and or ship coins to buyers. They won't use mylar flips at all. Short term, stress short term, use of the soft flips will not cause harm to coins - they know this and that is why they use them.

Also, the albums and/or ring binders like those pictured above, they can be just as dangerous, and sometimes even more so, to your coins. This is because they are very rarely made of archival quality materials. And in most cases they themselves, the albums and binders, contain PVC or other harmful materials.

What I am trying to get across is that it is not just the flips that you use that you have to worry about. You have to worry about anything and everything that is stored in any proximity to your coins.

 

Well, as they say, life is full of trade-offs. And yeah, believe me, I really do understand your point of view. But ask yourself this question. Which would you rather have: a storage method that you don't really like, or potentially a bunch of ugly and/or damaged coins in the end ?

And before you answer that question, for your own benefit, (and this goes for everybody who ever reads this), please consider this. You know all of those ugly, or scratched, or spotted coins that you've seen over the years ? There's been an awful lot of them hasn't there ?

Well how do you think they got that way ?

They got that way because of people who were faced with this very same decision - do I store my coins this way, or that way ? And then made the wrong choice for the wrong reasons.

 

Well, personally I always figured that if a coin was worthy of being in my collection at all then it was worthy of me storing it correctly. And how did I define storing it correctly ? At the least, it was placing each coin in its own Air-Tite brand coin holder. Which when I was still collecting you could buy just about any size there was for 50 cents apiece, or less. And then I would place those Air-Tites in an Intercept Shield slab box and store them in a safe with nothing but inert materials inside, and silica gel packs to control humidity.

All told it might have cost me 75 cents a coin to store them correctly. Now is that too much ? I guess that depends on how you look at it. That was a 1 time cost, so the coins were protected as best I could protect them for life - for 75 cents. As for the coins themselves, the cheapest ones I owned cost me just over a $1 each. But others were thousands.

Short and sweet I did everything I could to remove chance, risk, from the equation as much as possible. I wanted my coins to stay just they way there were when I bought them. After all I bought them because I liked as they were when I bought them. And if they changed over time, possibly drastically, I knew I might not like them anymore. And what would be the point of owning coins you don't like and no longer want in your collection ? Let alone the fact that unwanted change could also lower the value, possibly a lot.

And when you consider that - how much is too much ?

Of course another way of looking at it this. If when you bought a specific coin, if it had cost you 75 cents more than what you paid - would you have still bought it ? If you answer yes to that question then you have also answered if it is worth it or not.

 

A workable storage method. But it is important that folks know that the album itself, as well as the plastic pages with the pockets for the coins, both need to be of archival quality.

I mention that because a great many of those pages that are designed to be used in a 3 ring binder are not archival quality. Many of them contain PVC which is about the worst thing you can have around your coins.