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Questions for PCGS regarding CORRECT storage of RED COPPER

ambro51ambro51 Posts: 13,952 ✭✭✭✭✭
Since it has come to pass that PCGS is aware of Red Copper turning color in slabs under certain conditions, I will ask you to both provide us with an Officially Approved method of long term storage and also would like you to investigate a more efficent slab design that will maintain the existing color of the coin for the future. Thank You. **please forum members don't respond let's await an OFFICIAL response from PCGS executives on this VERY serious matter**

Comments

  • WaterSportWaterSport Posts: 6,927 ✭✭✭✭✭
    OK
    Proud recipient of the coveted PCGS Forum "You Suck" Award Thursday July 19, 2007 11:33 PM and December 30th, 2011 at 8:50 PM.
  • SteveSteve Posts: 3,312 ✭✭✭
    Lots of luck seeing an "official" answer to your question on THIS thread. Steveimage
  • Please read my post in the Registry Forum about this very issue. But I would also
    like to see an official response here from PCGS.

    Ira
    Dealer/old-time collector
  • JRoccoJRocco Posts: 14,277 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I think Don and David and the rest of the big guys do not make
    a habit of walking on thin ice.
    Some coins are just plain "Interesting"
  • BillJonesBillJones Posts: 34,850 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Here are some tips.

    • Store you copper in a place that has low humidity. That means a constantly air conditioned environment if you live in places like Florida.

    • If your copper is in slabs, store it in a place where the temperatures of constant. Avoid taking copper coins in slabs from places that are extremely hot to places that are extremely cold and vice versa. This will help to prevent moisture from condensating inside the slab.

    • Don’t store you copper (or any coins for that matter) in a closed space with materials that contain a lot of sulfur, like rubber bans.

    • Many copper collectors like cloth coin envelope liners for storing their copper, but I’ve found that some of these devices promote toning and tarnish. Cloth liners are okay for brown copper, but I’d avoid them for pieces with red surfaces.

    • Pray
    Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
  • WaterSportWaterSport Posts: 6,927 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Before everyone freaks out, yes copper will turn, especially depending on what it was exposed to BEFORE it got into plastic. I sat in a 5 story beach front Condo in Puerto Rico with my Lincoln set in Slabs in Eagle brand notebook holders for 4 years. They were stored in my open bedroom closet, were mold permeated my clothes. Twice a year I had to pull the dresser from the wall and wipe it down with Clorox to get rid of the mold. The chrome rings on the binders even rusted. BUT NOT ONE COIN TURNED. Nor have they 3 years later since I moved to SC . So before everyone freaks out about their copper turning. Your memory will give out in most cases before you can even detect it. Unless of course the coin was exposed or doctored with some chemicals before it was slabbed.

    WS
    Proud recipient of the coveted PCGS Forum "You Suck" Award Thursday July 19, 2007 11:33 PM and December 30th, 2011 at 8:50 PM.
  • DCWDCW Posts: 7,639 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Good point, Bob.

    Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
    "Coin collecting for outcasts..."



  • << <i>Before everyone freaks out, yes copper will turn, especially depending on what it was exposed to BEFORE it got into plastic. I sat in a 5 story beach front Condo in Puerto Rico with my Lincoln set in Slabs in Eagle brand notebook holders for 4 years. They were stored in my open bedroom closet, were mold permeated my clothes. Twice a year I had to pull the dresser from the wall and wipe it down with Clorox to get rid of the mold. The chrome rings on the binders even rusted. BUT NOT ONE COIN TURNED. Nor have they 3 years later since I moved to SC . So before everyone freaks out about their copper turning. Your memory will give out in most cases before you can even detect it. Unless of course the coin was exposed or doctored with some chemicals before it was slabbed.

    WS >>



    That's the real issue my friend. Once doctored, the surfaces are now chemically active at the molecular level, no matter how well they were rinsed. Encasement in a plastic slab just slows oxygen infiltration. That's why coin doctors do their mischief just prior to a major coin show. This way they or their proxies can get overnight grading well before the coin will manifest tell tale signs of "enhancement." From what I've seen, red copper/bronze will always give away the enhancement within a year if in a slab. If not slabbed, it will divulge its secret within a few months, maybe much sooner.

    What does PCGS mean by not guaranteeing the color? Does that mean they will still guarantee the grade? How will a coin showing a surface like the biblical Joseph's coat of many colors not show a major diminution of grade?

    Ira
    Dealer/old-time collector
  • MikeInFLMikeInFL Posts: 10,188 ✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Here are some tips.

    • Store you copper in a place that has low humidity. That means a constantly air conditioned environment if you live in places like Florida.

    • If your copper is in slabs, store it in a place where the temperatures of constant. Avoid taking copper coins in slabs from places that are extremely hot to places that are extremely cold and vice versa. This will help to prevent moisture from condensating inside the slab.

    • Don’t store you copper (or any coins for that matter) in a closed space with materials that contain a lot of sulfur, like rubber bans.

    • Many copper collectors like cloth coin envelope liners for storing their copper, but I’ve found that some of these devices promote toning and tarnish. Cloth liners are okay for brown copper, but I’d avoid them for pieces with red surfaces.

    • Pray >>



    All good points, IMO. I would add another...

    • Store your coins in something that limits airflow around the slab, with lots of dessicant (and check it often).
    Collector of Large Cents, US Type, and modern pocket change.
  • ambro51ambro51 Posts: 13,952 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Im pretty sure that Don Willis reads this forum quite frequently.

    Would you care to chime in, Sir?
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,903 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Lots of luck seeing an "official" answer to your question on THIS thread. Steveimage >>



    Agree. This belongs in the Q&A Forum.image

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • tahoe98tahoe98 Posts: 11,388 ✭✭✭


    << <i>

    << <i>Lots of luck seeing an "official" answer to your question on THIS thread. Steveimage >>



    Agree. This belongs in the Q&A Forum.image >>




    ......YEAH! and we all know how active THAT place is!image
    "government is not reason, it is not eloquence-it is a force! like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action." George Washington
  • BillJonesBillJones Posts: 34,850 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>So before everyone freaks out about their copper turning. Your memory will give out in most cases before you can even detect it. Unless of course the coin was exposed or doctored with some chemicals before it was slabbed. >>



    Sadly people freak out because they have to pay huge premiums for the red color. I refuse to pay those prices, and stay away from red copper except for modern (coins that are 60 years old or newer) material.
    Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?

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