Are these silica gel packets safe to store with coins?
AllCoinsRule
Posts: 2,442 ✭✭✭✭
Are these waxlike paper ones ok to put in a ziplock with certified coins?
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AllCoinsRule
Posts: 2,442 ✭✭✭✭
Comments
I would think that these would be okay. Personally, I would get the reusable type considering all you have to do to recharge them is to put them in the oven for a while to make them ready to go again.
I don't see why not.
They shouldn't be wax-like - that would keep the moisture from getting to the dessicant.
Silica gel has no vapor pressure to speak of and should not outgas at all. The silica is harmless.
HOWEVER, is the paper packet archival?
I keep piles of them with my silver. Helps keep them from getting that nasty toning.
They make a great snack.
I have to agree with @morgandollar1878
I have had silica gel and other desiccant material in my safe with my coins for forty years and there are no ill effects. Cheers, RickO
Buy the ones packed in fine nylon mesh bags. Safe and efficient to re-charge.
I live in a humid area and had some in the safe - these kept absorbing water, even after they had "done their job" and literally tried to flood my lowest stored coins in the box which I thankfully rescued before any major permanent damage. Well 1/16 inch watery substance....
Well, just Love coins, period.
silica gel packs are made from clay, silica gel and activated carbon. anybody want to weigh in on the effects of carbon and moisture in an enclosed (safe ) environment. The following is just a personal observation and has no basis of fact or scientific corroboration. Someone in our esteemed hosts service has done a fair dinkum amount of research on storage and safeguarding with particular focus on moisture, corrosion, and toning. I personally think that earlier slabbed coins exhibit some degree of change over the years inside their holders, and that there is a constant evolution to hermetically seal coins to make them impervious to outside contaminants and moisture, or they wouldn't be different versions used. Maybe one of the moderators could weigh in on the best method to protect coins in storage. I personally have 3 different sized seal-a-meal bags that I use for long time storage. I have a plate that is level with the sealing mechanism and I lay coins flat in the bag, suck out the oxygen, and heat seal the bag. I can lay out the resultant bag and stack them or vertically stack them for ease in storage. I write on the bags what's in them but the bags are transparent and you can see in them. Can't say if this would protect the coins over 20/30 years as I've only been doing this for the last 12 years.
Bob Sr CEO Fieldtechs
They are not fully effective unless the storage container is air tight. If not, they just pull moisture in from the air around the container until they become ineffective and need to be recharged or replaced.
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
Are these silica gel packets safe to store with coins?
To be sure, find something other than coins to protect the silica gel packets.
Lance.