Purcasing a vacum sealer for one tray might be a bit of overkill for me. I might ask my butcher about sealing it up with cryovac.
Vacuum sealers are not so expensive if you use them regularly. Biggest concern is the plastic that is used for them. If it's good for food should be also theoretically for silver, but who knows. If they help maintain the condition of coins and medals they are definitely worth investment. I put all coins and medals that mean something more to me into at least 2 Coin Armour bags which I then put into plastic bag that is vacuum sealed. I apply the same for slabbed stuff. I have 2 vacuum sealer. 2nd I bought cost like 50, but it's smaller, lighter, faster and quieter. Besides that I use them from time to time for food, so it's multifunctional device. Nowadays people throw a lot of food away, which is quite a pity and shameful. So definitely recommend purchase for an active collector, especially considering value of the collection.
I guess I'm a bit sloppy with this compared to most, as my solution is simply using the Lighthouse Intercept SL50 box for slabs: https://www.lighthouse.us/epages/li...jectPath=/Shops/leuchtturm_us/Products/IBSL50 and airtites in special boxes for non sealed omp's: http://www.ebay.com/itm/222139041431?rmvSB=true The thing is I like to be able to pick them up and enjoy them from time to time, so I want them to stored in an accessible way. Also I think its better to know if a coin/medal has a spot problem (etc..) early rather than later. Later it might be off market and a lot harder to get a better one. And normal aging I'm not that worried about. It can also enhance the beauty and value if lucky with nice toning. But hey, that's me. All have to find what suits them, and luckily there are a lot of alternatives on the market. And still some butchers! However be careful with the plastic used as I've seen some terrible results from vacuuming with bad plastic!
Opinions and practices vary. Only time will tell what works best. I initially stored four 15-coin trays in a large Coin Armor bag. Latter on I brought them out and vacuum sealed each tray and stored two trays per Coin Armour bag. I believe the latter configuration makes sense for long term storage of silver coin trays. With regards to individual coin slabs I currently package them in coin armor bags and store in Intercept boxes (overkill!). I don't have a strong opinion about this; just doing what seems to make sense now with hope it will help prevent certain types of coin surface deterioration. http://china-mint.info/forum/index.php?topic=7646.msg76976#msg76976 http://china-mint.info/forum/index.php?topic=11584.msg69975#msg69975
Yeah, only time will tell what is the best. And might be different story from coin to coin or medal. It also depends of course how stuff was produced, transported and stored. A lot of modern proof coins have problems with milkspots. There might be tiny crack in the capsule that will cause toning. Initially I first vacuum sealed coins and medals and then I stored them in CA bags, but later on I started doing opposite. I guess they are advantages and disadvantages of both approaches.
the process and environments of making the metal plancant is one factor lead to white spot and marking on copper, brass, silver and gold. I.e clean environment, oxida, cleaning and washing processes, rinsing processes, cutting processes and so on. Another factor is purity and mixture of metal. I.e bronze is withstand of spot as compare to copper and brass. Gold will get red spot which is easily clean up by ncs. The red spot due to the purity. Silver will get burnish and dark spot if the purity is not good. antique process play a part on reducing spot becuase 99% have kill by chemical effect. Coin striking processes and cap on the coin also another reason of leading to spots. Without cap like maple and Britannia bullion coins are easy to get white spot for silver and marking for brass and copper. High relief coin or medal with big mirror areas is much harder in striking processes. If mint get no tip TOP technology, environment and material which might lead to spots too. The numerous striking in high temperature , washing, cooling, rinsing and restricting processses which involve water and h2o so this lead to white spot and marks. No mint can Ensure 100 % no white spot and marking. Transportation by plane with very cool temperature and heat which also can lead to marks and white spot. Those is not visible initially but develop later. White spot can develop after expose to air. This the reason double seal and vacuum seal play in part. Many veteran and professional collectors love nature tone and marking coin and medal. It take years to develop which is not easy. It is more valuable and highly appreacited if it is nicely tone naturally. Many bad dealers use chemical to fake the nature tone medals and coins to get higher premium. Copper take lesser time to tone than follow by brass and silver. Thus, nature tone shall be good instead of bad. In other hand, white spot and red spot are not marks and toning which appreciate by collectors.
Andy, very good info and points. I'm also concerned by the transportation. As air is cold in cargo areas of airplanes the whole time this cannot be avoided, but problematic can be also in delivery vans. 2 of my favorite coins have milkspots and both were delivered in colder times. Might be coincidence, might be also related to other things. I stored one coin with foam ring, but maybe the outer package was not good. Additionally air in China is very polluted, containing above average amount of some chemicals which are bad for silver and other more "sensitive" metals. Even though proof stuff is really nice I started to prefer coin and medals with antique finishing. Less chance for milkspots and better for taking pictures.
yes milkspots throw your coin back to basemetalvalue in the 80s milksspots never accured or were an issue strangely....
More white spot for modern coins and medals. I speculate cost cutting lead to this issue and more pollute environment too which mints do have class 10 clean house or production to prevent this white spot
In a follow up on this thread; I recently purchased a food vacuum sealer from Target. It came with two rolls of bagging, i.e. sides sealed, cut length to suit heatseal one end insert item and vacuum seal the other end. Did up my tray of pandas, rolls of other AG stuff and because I can basically make up packets of any size I vac bagged most all other AG I have less the milk spotted stuff........... argh.......RCM! Be interesting to see how the seals hold up after a couple months
I'd be keen to know as well. Do report back to us. My 2 cents: I don't seal my panda trays or individuals. The loose pandas I keep around to look at or quick sell (still in air-tites of course) dating back to 2012 which have not been stored any any special manner have survived as is, unblemished. I'm not in to graded coins so I'll just clean the toning off and very lightly polish them (maybe) if it happens. As for milk spots, I'll be more than happy to hang on to the milk spotted coins until a more reliable and less damaging process if found for cleaning them or just offload them at spot if the price and market is right.