long term storage of silver and gold

[blindguy]

in the last years you have seen lots of questions about storage of coins. there is a lot more to storage then just what type of holder you keep the coins in. there is moisture control, sun light, type of material in the safe or lock box you keep the coins in and temperature control. first off i am talking long term not 5 or 10 years but 30 to 50 years. i have been storing coins for over 50 years now and have seen some weird stuff happen to coins. my mother in law lived in ark. very humid state. she kept her coins in a safty deposit box in a bank with limited climate control. when she passed away we got her coins out and almost all had a white colored crust on them and anything in paper was damp or damaged.   another time i had some au morgans and i put them i a desk drawer. forgot about them for a few years and when i found them again they were all rainbow toned. felt and paper will tone coins also. if you want to see what sunlight and heat can do to a coin just put a silver coin on a window ledge in direct sunlight and see what happens in time about ten years ago i bought some coins from a estate here. the person who had owned the coins had stored the coins in a safe place. she had from the 1950's bank wrapped rolls of franklin half's and other coins. she put them in a old suit case and locked them in the trunk of a old car in her garage that did not run. these coins all were toned.  i will just say that where and in what you store your coins in is just as important as what the coins themself are in.   i still like ngc slabs.  jim

[BackyardBullion]

Great post and tips, thanks for sharing!

[kimchi]

Very interesting and useful, thanks Jim!

2 hours ago, blindguy said:

my mother in law lived in ark

Did you Noah well?

 

 

(Sorry, couldn't resist )

[dicker]

I am a sometime collector of Morgan’s and  concur that the storage medium significantly affects their likelihood to “tone”.

I purchased some Morgan’s from an Auction in the US - a small collection that was being sold as a lot. 
 

The Morgan’s that had been stored in yellow paper envelopes (they were old and tatty) had all toned. Those that had been kept in cloth bags had not. 

Thank @blindguy good to hear what other changes you have observed.  
 

Best

Dicker
 

 

[blindguy]

the sulfur and other chemicals in the paper is what tones them. the better quality of the paper the more they will tone.  jim

[Murph]

Better quality paper will often be fairly inert and not made of cellulose or bleached.  Acid free paper usually doesn't contain lignin or sulphur, unlike older or cheaper papers and is often buffered with calcium carbonate  so should help with atmospheric sulphur compounds as well afaik.