Storing coins and metal objects at home

Guides · 5 September 2026

Metal objects are damaged by three things and almost nothing else: touching each other, sitting in damp air, and being kept in soft plastic. Fix those and a shoebox outperforms an expensive album. What follows costs very little and is the difference between a collection that stays as it is and one that quietly degrades.

Enemy one: contact

Loose coins in a jar grind against each other every time the jar moves. Badges scratch the enamel of their neighbours, which is exactly the part that carries the look. The rule is simple: one piece, one compartment. Cardboard holders, paper envelopes, coin capsules, a tray with individual cells – any of them works, and all of them beat a shared container.

• Never carry a single good piece loose in a pocket or wallet – one day costs a visible level of wear.
• Do not stack heavy albums on top of each other; pressure transfers marks through pages.
• Work over a soft cloth so a dropped coin does not pick up rim damage.

Enemy two: moisture

Damp air drives corrosion, and it works slowly enough that most people notice only when green spots appear. Keep a collection in the living part of the home, not a cellar, an attic or an unheated garage, where temperature swings condense moisture onto cold metal. A closed box with a silica gel sachet is enough for most collections; the sachet needs replacing or drying periodically to keep working. Avoid storing metal next to outside walls and away from bathrooms and kitchens.

Enemy three: the wrong plastic

Soft, flexible plastic – the kind that smells and bends easily – releases plasticiser over the years. On coins it leaves a green haze; on paper it marks the ink. Inert materials do not: polyester, polypropylene and polyethylene, along with plain card and acid-free paper. If a sleeve is stiff and odourless it is probably fine; if it is soft, glossy and pliable, keep it away from anything you value. The same rule applies to paper items, as described in the guide to storing a paper collection.

Handling

1. Hold coins by the edge and badges by their rim or backing – skin oils etch into metal over time.
2. Do not talk directly over a piece while examining it closely; droplets leave spots.
3. Do not clean, polish or lacquer anything. Lacquer is irreversible and a coated coin is described as such forever, which is covered in the guide to cleaning old coins.
4. Keep award and enamelled pieces separate from plain metal: enamel chips against harder surfaces.

A setup that costs almost nothing

• Cardboard holders or paper envelopes, one item each, labelled in pencil on the envelope – never on the object.
• A rigid box that closes, kept in a room you actually heat.
• A silica gel sachet inside, replaced when it stops working.
• A soft cloth on the desk for handling sessions.
• Photographs of each piece as a record, taken the way described in the guide to photographing a collection.

Why it is worth the trouble

On common material condition decides nearly everything, and storage is the only part of condition still under your control – everything else already happened. The open archive holds 855 Soviet coins and 3,332 badges, and browsing them shows the full range: even, honest surfaces on pieces that were kept apart, and scratched fields and chipped enamel on pieces that were not.

Open the sections: coins and banknotes, badges.