Introduction & advices needed

Hello, everybody!

I have just created an account here in Numista, and as a polite guy, please let me introduce myself.

I've been a world coins collector for 35-40 years, since my grandpa gave me a little cardboard box with about 50 coins inside. 

In 2008, when I got to know through internet that all my some thousands items were contaminated by the PVC of my storing sheets, I was  horrified and paralyzed. 

Since I did not have any time nor real knowledge to remove that infamous poison, nor a clue about how and where to store my coins from the scratch, I got depressed -from a numismatic point of view- and stuck until last year, when I discovered Numista, and started to work again with my collection, using this amazing catalogue and reading its forums regularly.

All the previous years since 2008 I had still collected actively, but I had kept all the new coins in the bags/envelopes I was given, and not properly clasified them.

Until here the introduction. From now on, some advices needed.

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At the moment, I am using acetone to remove the PVC on each single coin, and I am storing them in small bags/envelopes made of safe LDPE or PP, and then in small parts organizers. 5% of my whole collection done so far.

Since I have a lot of coins to restore, I was wondering what you would do if you were me. I am willing to finish the restoration, even though I'll need several years and tons of acetone.

And how would you store your coins? I have been searching for hours, and have not seen any kind of sheets for coins not made of PVC, even though the most prestigious brands claim their materials are safe -without plasticizers, acid free…-. I am only interested in coin sheets, given that I love to have them as in a book.

Thank you very much for taking your time to read, and in advance for your posts. I hope to be a useful mate over here 😊 

Higuera

Hello, everybody!

 

I have just created an account here in Numista, and as a polite guy, please let me introduce myself.

 

I've been a world coins collector for 35-40 years, since my grandpa gave me a little cardboard box with about 50 coins inside. 

In 2008, when I got to know through internet that all my some thousands items were contaminated by the PVC of my storing sheets, I was  horrified and paralyzed. 

 

Since I did not have any time nor real knowledge to remove that infamous poison, nor a clue about how and where to store my coins from the scratch, I got depressed -from a numismatic point of view- and stuck until last year, when I discovered Numista, and started to work again with my collection, using this amazing catalogue and reading its forums regularly.

 

All the previous years since 2008 I had still collected actively, but I had kept all the new coins in the bags/envelopes I was given, and not properly clasified them.

 

Until here the introduction. From now on, some advices needed.

 

---

 

At the moment, I am using acetone to remove the PVC on each single coin, and I am storing them in small bags/envelopes made of safe LDPE or PP, and then in small parts organizers. 5% of my whole collection done so far.

 

Since I have a lot of coins to restore, I was wondering what you would do if you were me. I am willing to finish the restoration, even though I'll need several years and tons of acetone.

 

And how would you store your coins? I have been searching for hours, and have not seen any kind of sheets for coins not made of PVC, even though the most prestigious brands claim their materials are safe -without plasticizers, acid free…-. I am only interested in coin sheets, given that I love to have them as in a book.

 

 

Thank you very much for taking your time to read, and in advance for your posts. I hope to be a useful mate over here 😊 

 

Welcome to Numista

There is an interesting thread in numista about how to store and manage coins - How do you store and manage your collection? – Numista

hope this will be helpful

Regards,

Pramod

Nice, I am asking in that thread about storing. Thanks for the link!

About my experience with PVC residue, and what to do, I'd like to know how others manage that.

Do you use acetone with each single coin you get for your collection, before storing it, or just when you notice theres some PVC on it?

Higuera

 

 

 

Since I have a lot of coins to restore, I was wondering what you would do if you were me. I am willing to finish the restoration, even though I'll need several years and tons of acetone.

 

And how would you store your coins? I have been searching for hours, and have not seen any kind of sheets for coins not made of PVC, even though the most prestigious brands claim their materials are safe -without plasticizers, acid free…-. I am only interested in coin sheets, given that I love to have them as in a book.

 

 

Same case here, after decades of storages in old PVC albuns, I found that that stickness was a real problem.
Decontamination is simple, acetone, as you´re doing, but you do can put together coins of the same material and batch clean them. Don´t need to clean one by one. For common, inexpensive coins, I used to put up to ten together, to reduce further damage from scratches. More valuable ones, obviously I cleaned one at a time.

About storage, here in Brazil the PVC problem is still barelly known, and we don´t have access to garantee PVC free material, so the closest that we get are cheap PCCB 5x5 Holders (BRL $12.00 pack with 50), or the more expensive (BRL $100 pack with 60), and hard to find, Leuchtturm ones, or acrilic capsules/slabs.
Again, for cheap, common coins I uses 5x5, and for more expensive ones capsules/slabs. BTW, There are album sheets for capsules/slabs, so you can have them in a book.