Where & how to store your coins in a safe environment?.

silicon - a protector

aside from protecting coins. what other things this silicon gel can protect?. can it protect clothings. i put most of my coins inside a closet with a lot of dresses. also can it protect paper money and stamps?.

 

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plastic container

are those plastic container with cover free of pvc or other chemical that will affect the coins?. what kind of plastic container we are talking?. what brand?. what kind of sizes?. and how much?.

 

If any of the coins are really valuable you may want to consider the following information from the book Coin Preservation Handbook by Charles Frank.


And familiarity with the info from the paragraph titled other degratative materials from the same book might not hurt. If possible, avoid using those materials and avoid storing those materials in the same container you are storing the coins in. I've taken to storing my better coins in heatsealed Safety Flips or airtites in jars of metal cans with dessicant.

 

One thing that really works well is to buy some large quantity of clear epoxy glue. Lay out one thin layer, wait until it almost hardens, lay out all your coins on that, then add one more thick layer of the epoxy on that. Your coins will be safe from the air, water, cantaminates for thousands of years. No one will be able to handle them either. Other methods should include inserting coins in sandwich bag and placing into wet concrete. Make them into block shapes and use as garden decorations.
Just kidding. I also use the premade 2x2 holders. Other plastic products should be tested over a period of many years before placing coins in them. Also, the 2x2's don't allow the coin to move around causing minor marks on the coin. I've got most of my valuable coins in Whitman Classic Albums, the album in a large plastic type bag with as much air presses out as possible and then put into a banks safe deposit box. Some have been there for almost 50 years and look the same as when I put them in there.

 

safe place

i opened a roll of quarter dated 2000. some rim of quarters became dark color or black color. but the face of the coin is so brilliant and shining. why and what had happen?.

 

Most likely the rims of the coins toned from being in contact with the paper. Most paper is made using sulfuric acid to process the wood pulp and the resulting paper contains sufides and related chemicals. The sulfur chemicals are very reactive with metals and they form a sulfide film on the surface. A lot of toning is either copper sulfide or silver sulfide. The toning occurs faster if the paper and coins are exposed to temperature and humidity fluctuations.

 

coin safe

should i take it out and put it in a coin tube. also keep the paper wrapper for future selling it. my rolls were not from machine wrapped. it is from manual wrapped and a little bit loose.

 

Yeah, inert plastic coin tubes are safer than paper. There is no reason to keep the wrapper except for mint paper wrappers. People pay a premium for intact mint wrapped rolls of coins because these are the most likely to be truly unsearched. If you have some mint wrapped rolls, you can store them in closed glass jars with dessicant in the jars to minimize the possibility of toning too dark. If it is just a regular non-mint paper wrapper you can use it to roll up non-collectable change though. For selling a BU roll, I would think people would rather get it in a coin tube than a paper roll.

On the other hand, sometimes if rolls of coins are stored just right, the end coins become attractively toned. Attractive end roll toned coins get a premium. The only problem is they are just as likely to be unattractive as attractive.

 

coin safe

thanks MrSpud. happy thanksgiving.

 

This may seem a little extreme to some people but here goes...

I put all of my raw coins in 2x2's which are stapled on four sides and inserted in sheets for storage in custom albums. For certified coins I use the grading companies storage boxes to avoid scratches. Then everything is locked in a 180cf vault with a 2,000 gram canister of silica gel and a corrosion-inhibitor.

 

safe storing

i bought some silicon 40 gram pack. i put one inside my safety box at a bank. the questions are: how long it will take me to put it on my oven for reavtivate?. can you estimate when?. so that i don't have to go to the bank safety box frequently. second, those i did not open it yet. still sealed with plastic. when i don't use it. will it be expire too.

 

safe place

thanks again GDJMSP. you such a wonderful guy. i learn a lot on this topic.

 

clay desiccant

i already bought silicon pack and used them. what about the smaller clay desiccant. they don't have anything to know if it was finished. how long for a clay desiccant to last?. if i forget to replace it. will it affect the coins?.

 

You can order small humidity indicating cards to monitor the humidity levels in containers and change out or recharge the dessicant when the humidity is found to have risen. The cards have round circles on them next to humidity values. When the color turns from blue to pink next to whatever humidity you are concerned with (40% or less humidity is desired, but it is possible to stay under 30% in a closed glass jar with a good lid). Another approach that protects as well as indicates that you should be concerned is to put a few shiny new copper cents unprotected into the container. If you notice the cents starting to turn brown, you have humidity and/or corrosive chemicals trapped in the container with your coins. Because your coins are in some holder that (hopefully) provides a little extra protection the unholdered copper coins will be attacked quicker and can give you early warning that something is wrong. The copper also protects the other coins because clean copper is more reactive than most other metals and will effectively absorb the corrosive agents out of the air and lock it onto the coins surface. I take this idea one step further and use sheets of copper foil instead of cents. It works the same but is better because you can recharge the copper by sanding its surface creating a highly pure copper surface that is very reactive to corrosive agents. Intercept shield products work in a similar matter. Early versions were copper powder impregnated into plastic, the more recent versions are basically copper powder impregnated into absorbant polymers that are then incorporated into cardboard (I believe acid free cardboard) and formed into boxes, albums, etc... Supposedly the intercept is theorized to be able to protect the coins for up to 10 years before the copper powder becomes too saturated with corrosive agents to become innefective. For my copper foil strips, I plan on recharging them once a year by resanding the surface to keep it reactive indefinately. If I notice any of the strips to be darker than what is in the other containers, I'll know that something is wrong in that particular container and I'll change the dessicant and/or remove whatever I think is causing the corrosion. Otherwise I will sand the copper strip and put it back and reclose the container.

 

safe keeping

now that the u.s. mint produced 2 set rolls and with a small box on it. if we keep it unopen box. in the future time. will it be affecting the coins at the front and at the end of its roll?. also, will it be tarnish or tone or change color?. what is the best way to preserve brilliant uncirculated coins in this case?.

 

The paper and the cardboard box both can outgas sulfide chemicals and tone or tarnish the end coins as well as the rest of the coins mainly on and near their rims. If you want to reduce this potential, and still leave them in the mint packaging, your best bet would be to keep the whole thing in as dry of a condition as possible and avoid temperature fluctuations. It would probably work pretty good if you took the rolls out of the box and placed the whole rolls in a glass container with dessicant and sealed the container up. If you want to keep them in an unopened box, you'd have to get a larger container. I'm not sure whether or not the whole box could be placed into an empty metal paint can but it might. This wouldn't guarantee that the coins wouldn't tarnish or tone, but the low humidity would probably at least minimize it.