Who Else Hates Rubber Bands???

RichR

Are you like me?

Do you have dozens of dried or stretched out rubber bands all over your Mint boxes and other parts of your collection that need to be replaced every year or so?

Why can't anyone create a durable rubber band?

Mr_Spud

Rubber bands can make bad toning too and shouldn’t be stored near coins, especially if you store the coins in an enclosed area like a safe or a box or other containers. You shouldn’t use them let alone replace them. It’s sad when you see coins with a black streak on them from rubber bands.

PerryHall

@Mr_Spud said:
Rubber bands can make bad toning too and shouldn’t be stored near coins, especially if you store the coins in an enclosed area like a safe or a box or other containers. You shouldn’t use them let alone replace them. It’s sad when you see coins with a black streak on them from rubber bands.

Totally agreed. Keep rubber bands away from your coins. They are high in sulfur and give off fumes. Take a rubber band and stretch it a few times and then smell it. That's the smell of sulfur.

logger7

I've seen too many good coins ruined with rubber band and similar stains that will never come off. Also one of the owners at NGC once said he didn't want any staples in the building near coins.

johnny9434

I got rid of mine many years ago because of the bad toning

LanceNewmanOCC

@RichR said:
Are you like me?

Do you have dozens of dried or stretched out rubber bands all over your Mint boxes and other parts of your collection that need to be replaced every year or so?

Why can't anyone create a durable rubber band?

you have good timing. i've spent the past few weeks removing every rubber band from wherever i find them, in use or not, right into the trash. as we get older we tend to keep things longer and a rubber band will spend a long time in a state of distress which only leads to chemical reactions, deterioration, destroying, adhering etc., none of which are any good. i'm in things for the long haul as much as i can, so rubber bands just got blacklisted. lol

there ability to put nearly impossible to remove black bands across coins played no small part.

RichR

Thanks for all the input...this thread has gone off in an interesting direction.

For whatever it's worth, the only rubber bands I use are to hold stacks of old school brown and dark blue (remember those?) cardboard Mint shipping boxes closed.

However, long ago, I found out the hard way that a rubber band within a Dansco album can leave a black stripe on a silver coin, even under the hard plastic insert.

Just asking...but has anyone seen a rubber band actually damage a coin sealed within a TPG slab??? I have all of my slabs in hard plastic carriers, but I can imagine them also be rubber banded together by some.

OAKSTAR

Great thread!

So now you guys have me thinking. I have several dansco's (with additional pages making them larger) in multiple large Ziploc bags with Silica Gel packs inside. The Ziploc bags aren't big enough to actually zip closed. So I rubber band them shut. They are in the gun safe in the basement.

After reading the above posts, I guess I need to come up with another solution. Hmmmm.

oih82w8

Not these guys...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KSMVflSBKx8

Coinscratch

So then why are we instructed to wrap our little treasures in rubber bands when submitting? Now submissions sit on a shelf for weeks. Or maybe they remove them when the order is being checked in.

These took 2 weeks for travel and to be checked in. Went to grading status today so I imagine they unwrap them to confirm the order?

oih82w8

Not trying to derail the thread, but I place my submission coins into a bubble wrap sleeve and secure it with lots of shipping tape.

Although I do remember my first crossover submission was secured with a red ribbon.

...just in case you are wondering...the 1917 25C Type I did cross at the same grade;

MasonG

@Coinscratch said:
So then why are we instructed to wrap our little treasures in rubber bands when submitting?

Because they're not going to be sitting there like that for 50 years. It's the same reason PVC flips get used with no adverse effects- short term storage.

RichR

Coinscratch...

I literally had modern flips banded like that in my storage area for years, not weeks, and when I removed the band, there was a perfect black stripe along the coin (inside the flip).

To make things worse, that stripe would not dip off in the least.

I also had a couple of coins, also in those flips, banded inside the front cover of a Dansco album...and you guessed it, another black stripe. Interestingly, none of the coins under the album's plastic strips were marked...who knows why?

silverbul

IS THIS WHAT WE HAVE BECOME? gas at 5 bucks a gallon, food at record prices and we are talking about RUBBER BANDS. rock on.

RichR

[[IS THIS WHAT WE HAVE BECOME? gas at 5 bucks a gallon, food at record prices and we are talking about RUBBER BANDS. rock on.]]

Que?!? Why would we want to discuss those issues ON A COIN FORUM?

Omegaraptor

@logger7 said:
I've seen too many good coins ruined with rubber band and similar stains that will never come off. Also one of the owners at NGC once said he didn't want any staples in the building near coins.

This is why I always use saflips or envelopes to store raw coins.

Estil

I hate when stickers/price tags are put on mint/proof sets I'd love to get a nice sequence of mint sets next (I'm tapped out at the moment though) but I'd want to make very sure they're the very nicest coins/packaging I can get if I'm going to spend hundreds of dollars on that kind of thing. Like Gomer Pyle would say in that poker episode, if I'm gonna spend all that money, I want the best!

Maywood

As mentioned, rubber bands should absolutely never be used to hold slabbed coins together or in any fashion around coins. They tend to off-gas and will actually tone coins, thus causing damage.

amwldcoin

While I have no testament to the longevity of them. For those of you who eat lots of fresh broccoli and asparagus, the rubber bands on those seem way better than your typical rubber band. I save and use everyone I can get.

ricko

I have never used rubber bands on coins/coin containers. I am surprised to hear that rubber bands would affect coins in slabs though... Not sure how that can happen. Cheers, RickO

PerryHall

I remember a fellow coin club member around 1970 bringing a near perfect blast white Trade Dollar to a coin club meeting for show and tell. He kept it in a small cardboard box that was lined with cotton. He kept the lid on using a rubber band. When he got it out of his bank's safe deposit box, he was horrified to discover a dark black line bisecting his coin from the rubber band. Apparently, the fumes from the rubber band were able to penetrate the cardboard box and cotton lining. It looked like someone took a sharpie marker and drew a line across it. Totally ruined the coin. This happened more than 50 years ago and I still remember it to this day.

OAKSTAR

@PerryHall said:
I remember a fellow coin club member around 1970 bringing a near perfect blast white Trade Dollar to a coin club meeting for show and tell. He kept it in a small cardboard box that was lined with cotton. He kept the lid on using a rubber band. When he got it out of his bank's safe deposit box, he was horrified to discover a dark black line bisecting his coin from the rubber band. Apparently, the fumes from the rubber bank was able to penetrate the cardboard box and cotton lining. It looked like someone took a sharpie marker and drew a line across it. Totally ruined the coin. This happened more than 50 years ago and I still remember it to this day.

Ouch!!!

Coinscratch

I guess if like dark toning you could you wrap a coin in blue or red rubber bands and maybe it would add some color.
I put a nice Silver Eagle in a blue envelope (2000 mint set) and placed it in the window last week.
How many years do I need to leave it there?

OAKSTAR

@Coinscratch said:
I guess if like dark toning you could you wrap a coin in blue or red rubber bands and maybe it would add some color.
I put a nice Silver Eagle in a blue envelope (2000 mint set) and placed it in the window last week.
How many years do I need to leave it there?

I was just sitting here thinking the same thing, not that I'm going to do it.

Let us count the ways to artificially tone or tarnish a coin... Sounds like a new thread!! 😂 🤣

dcarr

I've seen silver bars and coins that were stored in "zip-lock" style plastic bags with rubber bands around the outside, and the rubber bands put a black streak on the silver right through the plastic bag.

RichR

[[I've seen silver bars and coins that were stored in "zip-lock" style plastic bags with rubber bands around the outside, and the rubber bands put a black streak on the silver right through the plastic bag.]]

Ditto...it's amazing that can happen...but it can and does...I've been a victim of it myself. Unc Morgans with a black stripe right across the face...and that sucker will not lighten short of using sandpaper!

I'm also assuming that a coin will not grade in that condition despite the fact the cause is clear.

logger7

Thank God for the top quality plastic that has protected all our coins for years. Another result of the plastic age or before. Were other plastic and rubber products ruining coins in the 1880s too?

cladking

Almost everything made or sold here for decades has been trash. I'm still able to use some 50 year old rubber bands but even these had a shelf life and a half life and have met with misadventure so I don't have many. New rubber bands will puddle in the box if you don't use them quickly enough.

I would buy 2 X 2 boxes but they sell for several dollars apiece now days.

It gets harder and harder to keep a step ahead of planned obsolescence and the outright manufacture of garbage. Resources are converted to landfill at an ever increasing rate.

Maywood

@PerryHall said: Apparently, the fumes from the rubber bank was able to penetrate the cardboard box and cotton lining.

If you stack slabbed coins and wrap them with a rubber band the same thing will happen to the top/bottom coins if left like that long enough. Nasty!!!

cladking

@logger7 said:
Thank God for the top quality plastic that has protected all our coins for years. Another result of the plastic age or before. Were other plastic and rubber products ruining coins in the 1880s too?

There are still plenty of plastic products that will destroy or damage coins. Even the mint packaging of mint set back in the '60's, '70's and later will damage the coins if left in them too long. Try finding a pristine 1968 cent in original packaging.

coastaljerseyguy

Every thread needs a photo. Damaged I caused after I used a rubber band. Agree nothing will remove the black stripe short of sanding down. Not acetone nor touch ups with dip and q-tips.

Learned real quick to never used on unprotected coins, although I had rubber bands on slabs and never seemed to cause any damage, even after months. But removed all today after reading folks comments.

RichR

coastaljerseyguy...you call that a black stripe??? Only kidding...I know your pain.

My stripe was a solid black bar the width of a USPS type rubber band...the nice thick heavy type...just horrible!

OKbustchaser

JWP

@OAKSTAR said:
Great thread!

So now you guys have me thinking. I have several dansco's (with additional pages making them larger) in multiple large Ziploc bags with Silica Gel packs inside. The Ziploc bags aren't big enough to actually zip closed. So I rubber band them shut. They are in the gun safe in the basement.

After reading the above posts, I guess I need to come up with another solution. Hmmmm.

Just move the gun safe upstairs, piece of cake.

JWP

How long does it take for a rubber bad to start its distortion of the coin? Do rubber bands after cardboard 2x2's or vinyl flips?

Namvet69

I don't hate em but knowing they deteriorate and off gas makes them not welcome around my coins. Peace Roy

cladking

@JWP said:
How long does it take for a rubber bad to start its distortion of the coin? Do rubber bands after cardboard 2x2's or vinyl flips?

The cheapest ones are already starting to rot before the manufacturer gets them well in the box. Some will last a few years. Most deteriorate more quickly when they are stretched.

The old ones from decades ago can still be found sometimes.

Most products made today are for one use. Just remember to take rubber bands off as soon as you put them on.

PipestonePete

messydesk

The only time I use rubber bands is to secure a bunch of flips or slabs for shipping. When people send me coins, that's how I recommend they be shipped. Anything else is a pain to open. Longer term than that, rubber bands are evil.

messydesk

@oih82w8 said:

Although I do remember my first crossover submission was secured with a red ribbon.

...

Now I'm wondering if Longacre's preferred outbound packaging included a fine silk ribbon secured with sealing wax impressed with the family crest found on his signet ring.

coinkat

Ask a card collector...

There is a direct correlation between the use of rubber bands damaging baseball cards... there is a reason that the 1952 Topps#1 Andy Pafko graded by PSA at a 7 would likely fetch over $30,000- even on a bad day