A friend contacts me a few days ago to tell me how upset they are about the condition of some stored coins. These decimal coins were taken from mint rolls about 12 months ago and holdered into adhesive 2x2's and placed into pvc flips to be offered for sale. Looking again at these coins 12 months later their condition is somewhat displeasing. The pvc has leeched through the quite thin mylar in the cardboard 2x2 and the coins are covered in a greasy film. Now completely disheartened over their condition which was once pristine but now considered damaged they have called on me for a shoulder to cry on.
This got me thinking about our aspirations for the Purple Penny Project. You can read a detailed explanation about the project on The Purple Penny website but in a nutshell it's about removing pvc from in or near your collections because of the harmful affects it has on your coins. I saw a lovely complete set of 50c and $1 coins offered for sale on eBay a few days ago (and of course I can't find it again now). All coins were lovingly removed from their RAM packagings and capsules and broken out of pnc's etc, this method often destroying original packaging in the process. The coins were then placed directly into 30 pocket and 42 pocket pvc coin pages where the coins fit snugly and do look pretty. But, and the big but is you might fit a lot of coins cheaply into these sorts of pages but the pvc in direct contact with the coins will cause damage and a film to be left on the surface of the coin over time. You are destroying the coins putting them in these pages. We're also seeing damage to coins from the pvc not even being in direct contact with the coin surface (through the thin mylar of the 2x2).
Another collector friend of mine has a set of uncirculated decimal coins they had lovingly collected over time meticulously picking out the best examples. They housed them in adhesive 2x2's in pvc pages locked in their safe over a period of time and upon returning to them their beautiful uncirculated example of a key decimal variety (worth thousands of dollars) had been damaged forever (as well as all the rest).
I guess what I'm trying to say here is it's best to make the right decisions based on factual knowledge about what the products are made from that you choose to store your collections in. If the dealer doesn't know and can't tell you then go to someone who can. Ask specifically for non-pvc coin accessory products.
Posted by harrisk at December 25, 2010 1:00 PM
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