I've began collecting U.S coins, nothing really major and nothing really high grade. Mainly trying to get a one of each kind of deal for my kids later. Everything I currently have is in the flips I got them in, mercury dimes, v nickels, eagle pennies, half dimes, things like that. I have this gem jar display case I bought awhile ago for gemstone that I later quit doing. They can fit any coin the size of a one dollar coin or smaller. A great way to display all these coins, I expect the coins to be taken out and touched etc. My concern is these jars have foam in them, and the coins will be touching the foam and touching the plastic ontop. I do believe they are air tight though. Do you think these will cause the coins to tarnish more or be worse of then the flips I currently have them in and to what extent? I just don't want silver coins with silver fronts and yellow backs or something? Here is a photo of the case. I could place a piece of paper between the foam and coin if that would do anything.
Tough one, I would always err on the side of caution, if you have any doubts then don't do it. You could try a sacrificial coin, put it in a window or somewhere that gets a bit of UV light and warmth and see what it looks like after a few months.
Depends on your exit strategy. If you plan to sell your stash at melt when spot is all-time high then it is ok to store your coins this way. Else if you treat them as numismatics I suggest you store them at a better place
change the jar foam to cotton , the foam may have sulphur or other chemical in them; which may reacting with the silver. I do use those plastic container for my Gem stones.
Great advice guys. The I really plan on just given my coins to my kids so I would like them to retain most of thier apperance the way I got them. That being said they are not super high end or graded to begin with and im tired of having a pile of flips in my safe. I will swap out the foam with cotten and then put a sacrificial coin inside and see what happens
If i may add, the plastic in the case/foam may not be made from Polyethylene and may not be the safest to use. poly-chloride etc. Another mistake i found was temperature. I put my rolls in bags in a high cupboard to keep the kids out. But, high as i should have known, equals higher temp and faster reaction rates. My kids inheritance started to tarnish. So now they are in a cool, dry place.
Just some logic: it's certain elements that cause the tarnishing, right? Temperature is just an acceleration factor. Well, then it's logical that the best storage is the one with the least volume other materials and the least of those specific elements. That includes the particles in air. Well, such a display box has lotsa other materials. So it's destined for ruining coins way more. So the best storage has to be the most compact one and the least of harmful elements. And of course, not opening / touching it every sunday. I think nothing is airtight without a pressured seal, which in turn requires the container to have some force-lock closing mechanism. Maybe a better idea for viewing pleasure is taking some good pictures, then some ceremony with lotsa tears wherein the coins get stored until some undetermined future. Then if you feel the need, you can just watch on your computer haha.
You guys are right. I forked out the extra 20$ and got fitted air tite capsules to fit each coin. At .50 a pop it seems worth it, and you can still handle the coin in the capsule to see it which was my concern. I can store them fairly easy like that. Thanks everyone for talking me out of possibly destroying all my coins!
