Hey guys! So I was wondering how easily tarnish spreads. I have junk silver that is tarnished in Square CoinSafe Tubes. I also have silver coins in BU condition in plastic capsules in air-tite storage tubes. Is it possible for that tarnish on junk silver to spread to my BU coins in capsules. Any information on this and tarnishing would be great. I'm a little paranoid about it. I just don't want any tarnish on my shiny coins because I like shiny silver.
Many years ago, when I was collecting coins, tarnish was a bad thing. Now it is called rainbow toning, and people pay a premium for it. WTF.
Tarnish is caused by silver reacting with the sulphur in the air, it is not something that can be transfered between items. If you want a fairly cheap defence against it then throw a bit of pure copper in the same box as the silver, make sure the metals do not touch. Copper is slightly more reactive than silver and will pull the sulphur out of the air first. Tarnish on pure silver is black, tarnish on sterling silver is more of a greenish type colour due to the copper in the sterling silver reacting with the oxygen in the air.
