The effects of PVC

[Brad]

A customer of mine brought in an album of his to show me today at the coin show. The album was made by HARCO out of Chicago, IL. The album contained PVC which, over time, leaves a green sticky slime on your coins.

Here are some pictures for educational purposes. These were all BU coins before being stored in this album. The coins are from 1941 to 1974 and they were all effected to some degree.

If you have anything to share about PVC damage, please do.

The owner is willing to hear offers if this is something you may be intersted in. Why you may be interested...I have no idea.

[seal006]

Cool looking album, but tragic for the coins. Thanks for sharing.

[liveandievarieties]

Ugh, I don't understand it. I can see how the inexperienced collector could unwittingly use PVC plastic, but we see dealers do it all the time. At the show last weekend there was a guy from Beverly Hills, he had some very nice coins, many of them exceeding $3-4,000 each. We picked the heck out of him, buying several dozen coins. I knew at the time he was using PVC flips, but purchased the coins anyway. We were lucky, were able to safely remove pretty much all of it with acetone. Pretty sure most of the coins were in their flips for less than a year, because the PVC damage wasn't visible to the naked eye, but the q-tip was sooo green after just one side of each coin! How can someone be serious as a dealer and have no consciousness of what your holders are doing to your inventory.

Another dealer explained that the flips with PVC are "just cheaper".... Hmmm.

Lastly, we bought a very, very expensive die variety ('43P DDO Quarter, FS-103, the last example I had was an AU53 and it grossed $3,900 in a Teletrade auction). It was an AU coin without ANY luster... I argued that it would likely grade XF but the dealer matter-of-factly stated that it was "just the PVC affecting the luster". Well, we pulled the trigger anyway. He insisted on $300 for the coin, but we figured we could pull some money out of it anyway. If most of the PVC hadn't come off (it's still not perfect, but far better) we might not have gotten our investment back.


For everyone- there are a few ways to tell if your plastic has PVC in it- First- BUY NON-PVC FLIPS!!!! Then compare what you know is PVC free to other types- you'll find that flips with PVC are softer, more maleable and flexible. Non-PVC plastic is a bit more brittle and stiff.

Take a look at museums, at serious ephemera dealers and autograph sellers- none of them will use anything but PVC Archival qualtiy products to house things. There's an excellent reason. Often, as in the cents Brad pictured above, the damage is PERMANENT! You can take a $10,000 coin and reduce it to something worth less than $1,000 in a year's time.

You work hard for your collection and the coins you treasure, spend a few cents more and protect it so that the next generation can enjoy it too!

[uglycent]

I have a Gardmaster album from Paris, Ontario, Canada. It looks much like the album pictured. The cents have probably been in it for 10 yrs without any damage. It does not feel flexible and soft but it somewhere in the middle. Does anyone know the composition after seeing the possible damage seen here?

[liveandievarieties]

Not sure I understand- "possible damage"? Those cents used to be full red and are now permanently damaged. You can't remove that color, it's there forever.

One steadfast rule for possible PVC products- "when in doubt, throw it out!"

[jcuve]

I don't have pics, but if the PVC stays on a nickel or clad coin long enough, it eats into the coin. You remove the contamination, but a damaged area below remains. I found the color goes back (at least on a nickel).

[BadThad]

Too bad....the coins are ruined. The main culprit in the damage is hydrochloric acid. As most copper collecters know, acid is very bad. Silver coins are more resilient to it and can often be saved if it's caught early enough. Unfortunately, copper reacts quickly with HCl to form verdigris (copper chloride).

If anything, he needs to pull the coins out immediately and remove the residual plasticizer with acetone. Most of the verdigris under it can be removed with VC but the damage to the surfaces is already done.

[willbrooks]

Now you guys have me worried about my flips. Mine came from "Guardhouse" and say that they have a "polyester film window." Is this the ok kind?

[liveandievarieties]

Can't say for sure Will, if you want to send me one I can tell you for certain.

[willbrooks]

I think I'll do that, Chris. I know PVC is made from Chlorine. Polyester is made from 2 acid groups combined with 2 alcohol groups, so that may not be great either. Hopefully BadThad will chime in with some info for me. I'll PM him. Thanks. I would hate to ruin all those expensive coins I recently put into these flips.

[LDS714]

IIRC, didn't Harco go out of business at least partly due to lawsuits stemming from PVC damage?

[admrose]

Friend of mine traded me a morgan in a PVC flip. Coin smells just like the flip its been in there so long. Granted its junk silver so I don't care but I hope the dealer he bought it from has more sense then to sell decent coins in them.