Thoughts on long term preservation of RED copper

ambro51

The single most important feature of a RD coin is it being red. How so many of them have reached us through time is amazing. Since one never owns an antique, but is merely its caretaker....we should all be aware of the need to preserve the red surfaces from influences which will darken, tone and reduce the value of the coin. The story in the recent ANA magazine regarding the fellow who lost his stuff to a flooded bank vault, and a recent conversation with a well known Lincoln Cent collector, has put a few thoughts in my head which I want to jiggle around.

As per the ANA article, pcgs and ngc slabs can be permeated by both water and air. So we must stop those things from working upon the slab and the coin inside. The gentleman I spoke with had concerns about how far I was from the Ocean, and what my storage was. He advised dessicants in the safe or safe deposit box. What did surprise me is that he held incept shield sleeves in ho hum attitude. Not much of a help or a hinderance, but it kept scratches off the slab (good point).


In doing some research I see Metal Safe Corrosion Inhibitor, which seems like a Win Win .

Why not get them out of the air? Many garages today offer nitrogen filling of tires, cannot we locate a storage box which is sealed, and capable of having the atmosphere inside replaced with nitrogen through a simple valve stem? Of course, this must not be opened casually but Im talking years of storage here. I think in that way, especially with the metal safe corrosion inhibitor, you would be set for a storage plan that would rival anything the Smithsonian or National Archives could put together.

Thoughts?

curly

Brother......wouldn't doing all that take the fun out of coin collecting?

lasvegasteddy

i love that opening sentence

honestly though these pieces of copper have surface contaminant issues before striking

the surface by all rights needs to be stripped first as who knows the composition of chemicals or gases on an elemental level they've been exposed too before even leaving the mint

to merely entrap them in a controlled gas composition that is known safe without prior considerations noted would fail

i love the concept herein ambro and maybe...just maybe...we will see advancement

hopefully this thread in itself may spearhead a final resolution

DIMEMAN

This very subject is a very good reason to collect RB copper. I know a copper coin 200 years old and bright red is a beautiful coin, but red brown copper coins are also beautiful and they have already done what the reds will do in time.

JMHO

dpoole

That's why I got out of high dollars red Lincolns. The thought of their chuckling and doing little high fives as they turned brown in my safe kept me up at night.

ambro51

Thats why the show cars are at Pebble Beach and the regular cars are driving down the turnpike.

ChrisRx

Intercept Shield is what I use

Swampboy

<< <i>That's why I got out of high dollars red Lincolns. The thought of their chuckling and doing little high fives as they turned brown in my safe kept me up at night. >>



Is that what they're doing in there?

scottgardener

In terms of long, long term storage, as in passing it on to our genetically engineered cat-hybrid great, great, great grandchildren, we're also left to wonder what kind of numismatic conservation technology will come up between now and then, as well as what would be considered acceptable use of such technology. Just as we consider hand polishing a quick death and have strict rules about artificial toning, one wonders about, say, the use of nanotech robots or computer-guided electron beams to reduce oxidized molecules individually. Sure, stuff of sci-fi today, but in a hundred years, it could be common-place. (Of course, scary thing is, this same tech could also be used to make counterfeits that are disturbingly realistic.)

Bcsican

Fine copper is like fine red wine, the wines main goal is turning to vinegar... copper is to oxidise...few coins from today will survive the main reason old copper survives the chemical structure, todays copper will not last like the good old stuff if air has any way of getting to the surface...I have had over four hundred modern pennies all loose their luster and red color they were sealed pretty well.....it is only a matter of time...it is just the nature of copper unless treated... or sealed in air tight containers...

ambro51

The key to it all is the oxygen. I like the idea of a nitrogen filled storage box. In doing some research it does seem that the only two things that are guaranteed oxygen non permeable are glass and foil. Now, if you redesigned the incept shield idea but used a main container that sanwiched foil into the cardboard, and used a thin sheet of tempered glass for the view front, youd have a pretty reliable container. then...realizing this wasnt yet built, I thought about THIS. And I like it. costs really nothing but some of the wifes tin foil but I cannot see how the atmosphere can influence what is inside that at all. You do still have the oxygen that is currently inside the slab though, only the nitrogen box at a few atmospheres pressure would eliminate that.

Yes this might seem nit picking but keeping those 1909's red is a priority with me.