HISTORY OF COIN CARE
How Coins are Preserved and Protected
A lot has changed in the hobby of coin collecting over the past several decades, including how we store coins. We’ve come a long way over the last century. In the 1920s, most coin collectors were still storing their coins in small paper envelopes, while wealthier collectors organized their coins in beautiful coin cabinets. These ornate wooden coin cabinets were, for their time, among the most protective and organized methods of storing coins. Even today, some collectors still prefer storing their coins in cabinets, at least for temporary display purposes in special private or public exhibitions.
Over the past 10 decades, we’ve learned a lot about preserving coins. One of the many things we’ve discovered is that coin cabinets – as beautiful as they are – do not represent the safest method for storing coins. The design of the typical cabinet leaves coins vulnerable to contaminants in the air, as well as in the wood of the cabinet. What’s more, countless coins stored in these cabinets have been notoriously damaged by being stored in the drawer trays that are slid in and out of the cabinet. Many numismatists still refer to the light rub seen on the high points of many classic coins as “cabinet friction.”
Meanwhile, paper envelopes have also proven unsafe for a multitude of reasons. Among these are the flow of air in and out of the envelopes, friction imparted on the high points by sliding coins in and out of the envelopes, and chemical reactions caused by the sulfur, glues, and other corrosive agents in the paper.
In the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, we saw the arrival and eventual dominance of coin boards, folders, and albums. Many of these products are quite aesthetically attractive and represented a more economical way to store and organize coins than either coin cabinets or paper envelopes could afford. But, again, there are several inherent issues with such storage methods. Sulfur, acids, and glue chemicals in the cardboard
materials used in making these products and the open-air format of the boards and folders (as well as some albums) are among the many problems. Another issue? Surface friction caused by coins being exposed to everything from the acetate slides in certain albums to errant fingers that can easily touch coins placed in folders and unframed boards.
Many coin storage products were introduced in the late 1950s and early ’60s during the height of the coin collecting boom. This golden era of numismatics saw the popularization of plastic coin tubes, plastic coin display frames, and plastic flips. Note the extensive use of the word “plastic” here, and then perhaps a menacing acronym comes to mind. Of course, that acronym is “PVC,” which stands for polyvinyl-chloride, a popular synthetic plastic polymer that can be made either rigid or flexible. PVC has been in widespread commercial use since at least the 1920s and is commonly used in an incredible variety of applications, including household and commercial plumbing pipes, signage, healthcare products, and even clothing. While PVC may be a versatile miracle product for a wide array of industries, for coins it has usually spelled only slow and painful doom.
Damage caused by PVC is often indicated by a telltale green-colored residue. Once PVC eats into the surface of a coin, it leaves irreversible damage. PVC is not only harmful, but its effects can spread from one coin to others that come in contact with it, almost like a communicable numismatic disease. By the 1970s, many collectors were concerned about the nefarious long-term effects that could arise from storing coins in holders containing PVC. Thankfully, several products came along in the 1970s and early ’80s addressing these concerns, including MetalSafe corrosion inhibitors for use in coin vaults and other storage containers. There was also the arrival of a new type of coin flip called the Saflip, which is made from chemically inert (or non-reactive) Mylar.
With the arrival of third-party coin certification in 1986 by
the likes of the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) and the debut of Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC), a year later in 1987 came a new type of coin-storage solution. Both of these companies use inert, plastic capsules, widely called “slabs,” for the purpose of encapsulating coins in tamper-resistant holders after the certified pieces have received a grade. While most of the more modern holders are air-tight, they are generally not air-free; there is still a tiny bit of air left within the slab even after it has been sonically sealed. Still, the types of slabs used by leading third-party graders like PCGS and NGC offer protection miles beyond what virtually anyone in our industry could have imagined during the mid-20th century.
The history of coin preservation is long and colorful. And, as any of the players who have been involved with advancing the collective realm of coin preservation products will say, the journey over the past several decades has been a long and winding road of toil and innovation.
In the 1970s, George Klabin was a coin investor and dealer who became interested in the protection of coins because he wanted to better preserve his own coins. He cofounded NumisKnowledge Publications with numismatic expert David Hecht in 1978 and a year later, in 1979, changed the name of the firm to EquiSafe. The company’s principal product, MetalSafe, a solid corrosion inhibitor designed for use in confined storage areas such as a safe deposit box or vault, became a widely popular product. So, too, did EquiSafe’s other big product, Saflips.
“Mylar and other inert flips are much, much safer because it doesn’t contain the plasticizers as with vinyl,” explains Klabin. “But the danger with those is when you insert the coin into holder, coins are so delicate. It can cause a loss of value sliding a coin into flip.” Klabin says coins should always be inserted with gloved hands into a flip so as not to impart fingerprints or natural oils and other contaminants onto the surface of the coin. “Then you squeeze the flip, so it’s open enough so you can insert the coin slowly and carefully, and never let the edge of the flip touch or scratch the coin, otherwise it can create rub on the coin much like cabinet friction.”
But that’s not all when it comes to keeping coins safe within their flips. “The other thing is not to let the coin move around in the flip,” He notes. When coins move in flips, they may receive scratches, wear, and rub – just as they would sliding in and out of the coin cabinet drawers of a century ago. Klabin, who wrote a feature article on coin preservation for the 1983 edition of A Guide Book of United States Coins (widely dubbed “The Red Book”), also invented a small, cube-shaped product called CoinSafe, using anti-tarnish compounds developed by 3M.
“When you put it in an enclosed space, it prohibited tarnish from occurring, because oxygen couldn’t react with the metal. ffis was originally invented for silver items, like silverware in a cabinet – it wasn’t originally designed for coins,” he recalls. “We made a deal with 3M that we’d be allow[ed] to brand their product and they labeled it as CoinSafe and marketed it to coin collectors, and they’d buy it and put it into safes or boxes to help prevent coins from tarnishing. Now, they’re impregnating coin holders in some way with the same chemical so that you don’t even have to have that cube in your box.”
As Klabin recalls, the late 1970s and early 1980s was a colorful period in the coin preservation world. Third-party certified slabs were still years away, and the industry was just beginning to develop inert flips and albums. Yet cardboard coin folders containing corrosive acids and PVC-infused products were still widely used and embraced by hobbyists and dealers because they were generally cheap and widely available. “Many thought [those products] didn’t damage the coin physically, but we learned otherwise later.”
In 1984, Klabin sold EquiSafe to fellow numismatist Bernard Nagengast, who now serves as the president of E&T Kointainer Co. “In the 1970s, collectors were becoming concerned about the damage caused by vinyl coin flips which had been widely used by dealers and collectors since the late 1960s,” recalls Nagengast. “I had purchased the E&T Kointainer Company in 1978 and thought, ‘why doesn’t anyone make a safer coin flip?’ So I investigated available plastics and found that the safest archival plastic was Mylar made by DuPont and used by many museums. I worked with a friend to develop manufacturing methods from scratch to process the plastic into coin flips.
He recalls that collectors were quick to adapt to using Saflips in the 1980s, but it was a harder sell to coin dealers. “They didn’t like the stiffness of the Saflips and were afraid the flips would scratch coins,” he says. “And, they were reluctant to pay the premium price for Saflips, which we had to charge because the raw material, Mylar, was much more expensive than vinyl. It took about five years of continuous effort to get dealers to even begin to accept Saflips.” He said that by the mid-1980s, it became evident to dealers that coins were faring extremely well in Saflips as compared to the vinyl flips, which were turning many modern coins, especially proofs, cloudy. “And many museums use Saflips due to their safety,” Nagengast notes. “Since Saflips were introduced 38 years ago, no one has reported a deterioration of a coin caused by a Saflip.”
Nagengast didn’t stop at inert flips. A selfproclaimed tinkerer who earned his bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering and later completed an MBA, he eventually expanded the use of Mylar and other inert materials into a variety of other numismatic products. These include paper currency sleeves marketed under the Safgard name and archival coin albums marked as Koinpage, which premiered in time for the first 50 State Quarters in 1999.
“When I purchased Kointainer, some collectors were using benzene as a neutral solvent to wash grease, oil, and PVC residue off their coins,” he says. “Benzene is a dangerous chemical, so I searched for and found a safe alternative that I marketed as Dissolve. When that chemical was banned by the EPA, I substituted another chemical marketed under the trade name Koinsolv.”
Indeed, the industry’s understanding of coin preservation has improved miles beyond where it was in the late 1970s and early ’80s, when inert coin products made with Mylar and other safe materials were first making their rounds. Yet, much to
Nagengast’s surprise, it seems some things still haven’t changed. “Although many more safe materials are available now, the older, relatively unsafe products are still sold and used. Many collectors and dealers are unconcerned about numismatic preservation or don’t want to spend the extra dollars,” he claims.
“Despite the advances in chemical and plastics technology, many numismatic products are made of dangerous materials such as acidic paper and vinyl,” he observes. “For example, the commonly used 2x2 cardboard coin holders are still made of acidic cardboard. Perhaps someone will start making these using plastic board or acid-free cardboard.
And we still have acid-containing coin albums that use clear slides that scratch coins. I hope that innovations will arise to improve on the technology we are now using.”
In addition to continued improvements in coin storage options, Nagengast says further education is the key to helping collectors and dealers alike better understand the dos and don’ts of coin preservation. He believes one of the biggest problems are pesky, long-standing misunderstandings about PVC. “For some time, I’ve had a bugaboo regarding the widespread disinformation about PVC. Many numismatists, dealers, and even reference materials use the term PVC to designate a dangerous chemical that is put into plastics to make it soft. In fact, PVC can be hard or soft. Thus, many are led astray to think that if a numismatic holder is hard, it is safe, but that may not be the case.”
PVC may be the source of much muddle and misunderstanding for many in the numismatic arena, but the damage this harmful chemical causes can’t be any clearer. While coins affected by PVC exhibit a (usually) greenish residue, this distinctive sign of PVC damage may not appear until long after the coin’s first exposure to the harmful chemical. Only a few days in a PVC holder – especially in a warm and humid environment – can lead to devastating long-term effects that might not become evident for years.
Unfortunately, PVC damage isn’t just an aesthetic imperfection. It can virtually all but obliterate the value of affected coins. This can be seen just by comparing prices for original, problem-free coins listed in the wholesale price guide Monthly Greysheet versus the values of coins exhibiting damage from
PVC or other corrosive agents. For example, common-date Morgan dollars trade in the wholesale market for between $26 and $39 in MS-60, according to the most recent issue of Monthly Greysheet. Yet PVC-damaged, common-date Morgan dollars in that same grade might fetch but their bullion value, or $11.60 when the price of silver is $15 per ounce. Part of the reason PVC coins are worth less than their problem-free counterparts? Not only is the coin damaged, but also dealers may be reluctant to even handle pieces containing PVC, for fear of the chemical metastasizing to other coins in the inventory.
Other types of PVC-damaged coins don’t fare a whole lot better. Many dealers and collectors won’t even touch PVC-affected modern coins such as uncirculated or proof Jefferson nickels, Roosevelt dimes, Washington quarters, and Kennedy half dollars with a 10-foot pole. This means the local bank or nearest CoinStar machine may be the only place to dispose of these coins and receive any money from them, and of course that means they will be redeemed for only face value – significantly less than many of these modern pieces are worth even in low-end Mint State or Proof grades. Meanwhile, older base-metal coins such as well-circulated, pre-1933 Lincoln wheat cents and common-date Buffalo nickels, which generally trade for between 45 cents and $2, accordingly, may get only pennies on the dollar from dealers willing to accept such damaged material.
There are relatively few cases in which PVC-damaged coins enjoy more widespread acceptance in the marketplace, and these situations are usually only reserved for coins that are significantly scarce. And, in virtually all cases, these coins will only see a ready market when they have been properly conserved to remove any and all PVC residue and stop further damage from taking place. A lot of homemade remedies swirl about online and even in certain numismatic literature on how to remove PVC residue, including repeated soakings in acetone baths.
However, there’s much controversy about such do-it-yourself PVC washes, not the least of which is safety to the person using acetone, a potentially lethal product. There is also the concern that an unskilled person using acetone to remove PVC residue may not sufficiently remove all of the harmful contaminants. There’s also the risk that novices may use improper techniques for removing the PVC, including rubbing the coin, which can only cause more irreparable damage to the piece by imparting scratches and further wear. Finally, it should be remembered that only the PVC residue can be removed; the corrosive damaged caused by the PVC itself is permanent.
Still, a PVC-damaged coin need not be irredeemable. Numismatic Conservation Services, or NCS, exists to conserve damaged coins, helping to make them suitable for collecting and for trade in the marketplace. “The vast majority of the coins that NCS receives have been impacted by improper storage,” says NCS President David J. Camire. “PVC residue is a major problem because, even to this day, many collectors and dealers still do not realize that soft coin flips containing PVC are not safe for long-term storage. These flips leave an unattractive residue that can cause permanent damage to the coin’s surfaces if left untreated. For this reason, Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC), an affiliate of NCS, will not grade coins that have active PVC residue.”
PVC residue, haze caused by older mint packaging, and residue, as well as unattractive toning caused by storage in wooden cabinets and felt-lined trays, are among the chief issues confronted by NCS conservators. “The biggest problems that we see at NCS are PVC residue and haze,” Camire explains. “Both of these problems result from improper storage. Of course, coins that are stored in harsh environments such as extreme humidity can often have issues. In the worst cases, these coins can develop permanent damage such as corrosion, which NCS can stop but cannot reverse or remove.”
Some collectors and dealers may wonder what, if any, distinctions exist between cleaning a coin and sending it to NCS for conservation. But the differences are vast. “NCS conservation will only remove surface contaminants – the residue, dirt or haze that can develop due to improper storage and other environmental factors,” explains Camire. “Cleaning, on the other hand, is an amateurish attempt to make a coin look better than it truly is. Cleaning leaves hairline scratches or unnatural surfaces that may look good to a novice but are actually permanent damage that professionals will spot in an instant.” Camire says that NCS also never performs repairs, and therefore scratches, holes and damage cannot be improved by NCS conservation.
Many of the coins submitted to NCS end up in NGC slabs, which are designed for long-term preservation and have been extensively tested. NGC holders have even been utilized by the
Smithsonian Institution, which uses a special NGC “museum holder” to protect its most important rarities. NGC founder John Albanese, who began the firm in 1987 during the advent of third-party coin grading, recalls the extensive design and testing of NGC slabs to ensure they were safe for long-term housing of coins. While the plastic even in early slabs from the mid-1980s is inert, many of the coins in the older holders developed edge toning because of the lack of sealant.
“NGC has done a lot of research on it,” states Albanese. “In the old days, only parts of the edge were sealed, but now the entire edge is sealed. A lot of coins in the older slabs developed some beautiful edge toning because the air is coming in through the side, that’s why the color is coming in on the side.” He says NGC holders have since been engineered to form a perfect seal, thus reducing air Thow into and out of the holder. While this does not necessarily make the slab air-tight, the seal at least eliminates the entry of outside gasses into the holder.
In addition to working with his team at NGC to develop better slabs, around 2000 Albanese also founded Intercept Shield, which introduced existing technologies developed by Lucent Bell Labs into the numismatic world. fie product, utilizing copper to trap corrosive impurities in the air, was developed to help protect semi-conductors from corrosion while they were being transported by sea from their point of origin in Asia to their destination in the United States. “Copper is what they call a sacrificial agent,” Albanese says. “So, copper is sort of like Crazy Glue around your coin in the box. And as the gasses pass by, they cling to the Intercept Shield.”
Albanese says one can basically replicate the protection of Intercept Shield by lining the bottoms of their vaults or safety deposit boxes with red copper pennies, which were last made for circulation in early 1982. “Essentially the pennies would behave very similarly to Intercept Shield, because all of the particulates in the air, rather its ozone, pollution, sulfur, or anything corrosive, it would stick to the pennies. Then when they turned from bright red to brown, you get rid of the pennies – maybe cash them in at face value – and buy more pennies.”
The copper pennies may work in keeping harmful particulates from attacking your coin, but it can be challenging and sometimes downright infeasible to line sacrificial copper pennies in many other types of products used for storing coins, such as albums. fiat is where Intercept Shield has continued making strides in improving its technology and helping offer a wider array of safe coin storage and preservation products to the mass market.
“We infused the Intercept Shield technology in a variety of things, from foam core to coin inserts, and we even spray it onto paper for albums.” Introducing Intercept Shield into albums was especially important, as many of the other albums on the marketplace contain corrosive contaminants. “We’ve found from testing the albums that some of them were just awful in terms of the amount of acid they contained.” He adds, “of course, back before slabs, many people stored nice coins in those albums.”
If the past century has shown us anything, it’s that the numismatic world has come very far in understanding how even the elements around us – most unseen by the naked eye – can leave even our most beloved and valuable coins in heartbreaking condition. Albanese suggests new technologies may still emerge that further perfect how well we can preserve our coins. However, he quips, laughing: “There’s going to be a lot more exciting things happening in biotech and space travel than we’ll see in coin preservation.”