Coin storage in Harris albums - help

donthehill

Folks,
I have an 80-slot Harris album in which I want to put cardboard 2x2s. I noticed that the pages are pretty flimsy, which led me to think of the dreaded PVC. Sent an email to Wizard asking about these and they noted that they have PVC w/o the harmful plasticizers - not 100% cool, but much better than standard PVC. Can anyone verify that it's ok to store my non-million$ (that would be all of them) coins in such an album (with 2x2s as an extra layer of protection), or is this a bad idea? Don't wanna grow green coins.
Thanks,
-drew

originalisbest

My take on it is that for MOST of them, you'll probably be OK, due to the extra layer of protection. However, were it my collection, I wouldn't be satisfied with "probably", as the thought of ruining even a $2 coin (when it wasn't ruined prior to my possession) is not for me.

I'd go ahead and get a modern pocket page for 2x2s that is "clean", and investigate what are probably thousands of binder styles to hold them. For any given pliable plastic you're interested in storing coins in, you can do a flame test with a simple match (and taking care to catch and avoid burning plastic -- work over the sink.) If the plastic burns with a green flame, harmful PVC is present. If it burns bright orange flame, it's OK for coin storage.