I am still somewhat new to coin collecting and new to this forum and mostly I have been collecting bullion coins. A couple of years ago I noticed that some of my Silver Eagles and my Silver Maples that I had stored in Dansco albums were starting to tone. Because so this, I started to switch over to airtite products but I did not get all of my old silver coins switched. I recently moved from NE to FL and I noticed that some of the rest of the coins that I left in the Dansco albums are obviously more toned now than they were before and some have very dark pits. I also seams that some of the coins in the Airtite holders are a little more toned now than they were before. My questions for the forum are: What exactly is this pitting and how does it effect the price of the silver coins? I have read some threads with the plusses/minusses on toned coins but I have not been able to find anything on pitted coins. Is toning and pitting a common problem with Dansco albums Any info would be greatly appreciated. David
Howdy rcaacr8617 - Welcome to the Forum !! It sounds like you are not storing the coins properly. The Air-Tite holders are fine, but there's more to it than that. You need to keep them in a fairly cool place where the temperature does not change much. And Fla is a very humid state - bad news for coins. What I'm going to suggest may sound crazy, but it will help. Find yourslef a large Tupperware container - like those made for a rectangular cake. Store your coins inside - but get some silica gel packs as well. You can buy the reusable ones fairly cheaply. This will help keep the humidity from your coins. The toning I understand - what I don't understand is what you refer to as pits. Are you sure they are pits ? Or are they just dark spots ?
I thought that Tupperware was made of the kind of plastic that contributed to a coating on the coins, almost like tarnish. I thought that the harder plastics didn't have this problem. Not really sure because it's been a while since I read about this subject. But I do agree that the silica gel will be the answer to your humidity
Miker, your referring to plastics containing PVC. The PVC will adventually migrate to your coins and basically slowly eat them. I can't say if Tupperware has any PVC in their products, but I've heard most food products don't. Rcaacr8617, best of luck in Florida. Time to think about converting over to gold coins
Plastic made for food storage (including Tupperware) is forbidden by US law from containing PVC, therfore Tupperware is safe for coin storage, as far as PVC goes.
Pitting? I call it pitting but then again, I thought that the Dansco albulm would be good. It looks like an area of high toning. I have attached a picture but I am not sure if it will will come out correctly. It is a very small area of the coins and it is very dark. Thanks for the ideas on the tubberware and the silca packets. I will start to look into organizing things. One more quick question, wouldn't the Airtites do a similiar job as tupperware or was this instead of switching everything over to airtites? I just want to make sure that there isn't anything wrong with the airtites as I have started to use them. Again, thanks for your input. David
I am concerned about this too. I have many dansco albums and am also wondering the best way to keep them from toning. Any ideas specifically for dansco's?
It's not pitting, pitting would be holes being etched into the surface. What you have there I believe is a spot likely caused by a saliva droplet. It's not all that uncommon.
Yeah - if you don't want the coins to tone - don't use albums. Dansco albums in particular are famous for producing some spectacularly toned coins.
