Ring-type Air-Tites: do they or don't they...

[pendragon1998]

...ruin your coins? I've heard stories here and there that the rings can blacken coins, but it seems to me that if they were that awful, there'd be more of an outcry. Are the reports of Evil Destruction merely the result of users putting in coins already destined for Doom due to contamination...or are these things only rivaled in their Corruptive Force by the One Ring of Sauron?

 

I'm holding off ordering some black ring-type holders for my in-the-works SBA set until I hear enough to sway me. I want a nice little display for them, but since I don't want my little beauties toning in an album, I'm thinking ring-type Air-Tites in an Air-Tite album.

[MikeInFL]

I've never heard such stories. Do you have a source? I've had modern proofs in these holders for a year now (admittedly, not very long), and they are not toning, FWIW...Mike

[EZ_E]

I've never heard such stories. Do you have a source? I've had modern proofs in these holders for a year now (admittedly, not very long), and they are not toning, FWIW...Mike

 

Cmp9ball related his bad experience with them. Maybe the Florida climate has something to do with it.

[pendragon1998]

Beat me to it:

 

cpm9ball wrote:

I used Air-Tites in the past. Not only does it become prohibitively expensive, but the black accent rings were causing coins to turn black around and along the rim. Needless to say, I have removed all coins from them. Even the Dansco albums can be a little pricey, but for my special sets, I'll stay with them. For everything else, I'll just use 2x2 flips and cardboard holders and the plastic pages that hold 20 coins per page. I've read alot of good feedback on the Intercept Shield holders, but I have yet to try them.

 

Chris

[astrostu]

I'm holding off ordering some black ring-type holders for my in-the-works SBA set until I hear enough to sway me. I want a nice little display for them, but since I don't want my little beauties toning in an album, I'm thinking ring-type Air-Tites in an Air-Tite album.

 

There are two ways out of this, both easy, one probably better than the other, if you want to go with Air-Tite:

 

Option A: Order it with a white ring. (This is the easy solution.)

 

Option B: Don't order a ring one, order a direct fit holder for the SBA/Sacagawea dollar coins (26 mm). (This is probably the better solution.)

 

I just placed an order from Brent-Krueger group (easy Google search for them) for 16 holders to place some coins that I've had sitting in plastic flips forever (well, nearly a decade). 9 of them are direct-fit because the coins are modern, 7 of them are with rings and I ordered white rings because of that corrosion story but out of necessity because they don't make direct-fit holders for the older pieces.

 

On a slightly related note that I should probably start a separate thread for but am not at this point, do you guys know of a cheaper place to buy wholesale coin supplies that you don't have to buy in bulk from? I've been using Brent-Krueger for about a year and have been happy, but I'm always looking for ways to save money on the holders so I can spend more on the important things in life: More coins! (food is secondary ).

[cpm9ball]

Beat me to it:

 

cpm9ball wrote:

I used Air-Tites in the past. Not only does it become prohibitively expensive, but the black accent rings were causing coins to turn black around and along the rim. Needless to say, I have removed all coins from them. Even the Dansco albums can be a little pricey, but for my special sets, I'll stay with them. For everything else, I'll just use 2x2 flips and cardboard holders and the plastic pages that hold 20 coins per page. I've read alot of good feedback on the Intercept Shield holders, but I have yet to try them.

 

Chris

 

You and Victor are correct. I had 30 Morgans and a few Ikes and SAE's that were in AirTites with the black accent ring for 6-7 years. I kept them in a zippered portfolio and even went so far as to keep silica (dessicant) packs in the front and back of the portfolio which I replaced regularly. (I don't think the climate was a factor.) I noticed the coins began to turn black on the obverse and reverse along the rim, and when I removed them I found that the rim had turned totally black all the way around.

 

The other drawback to the AirTites is that the plastic pages made for them take more than twice the space in an album. I could only put 5 pages (20 coins per page) in a portfolio. With flips or 2x2's, the portfolio can hold 10 or more pages.

 

Chris

[pendragon1998]

As my statistics professor was fond of saying, "one point does not a trend make." Well, okay, he never said that - but I'm interested: has anyone else had the same thing happen to them? How about a poll:

[astrostu]

Not to belabor my point if you read it and disagreed, but if you want to go with Air-Tites and you are afraid of the rings ruining your coins, why not just go with the direct fit ones? They're made so that the SBA fits in just right inside of the plastic casing, and there's an outer buffer of clear plastic to make it a standard size (e.g. the same size as their direct fit quarter, nickel, dime, penny cases), so they can just as easily go into an Air-Tite album.

[pendragon1998]

That's okay. I do biology for a living and probably one of the reasons for that is that I have a very inquiring mind. One of my quirks is that I try and assemble all of the knowledge that I can find on a topic that interests me, and that's why I'm trying to get as many opinions and experiences with these things relayed to me as possible. If, for example, I get 29 "they're ok" and 1 "they suck" responses, I've got a better basis to form an opinion. I may indeed fall back on the 'better safe than sorry' direct fit Air-tites, but I'm just interested in finding out the truth about the ring-types. I don't like to do things because I don't know enough about the alternative - I like to form a reasoned opinion based on as much data as possible, then do what seems to be the most logical. Just call me Spock, I suppose :-)

[astrostu]

That's okay. I do biology for a living and probably one of the reasons for that is that I have a very inquiring mind. One of my quirks is that I try and assemble all of the knowledge that I can find on a topic that interests me, and that's why I'm trying to get as many opinions and experiences with these things relayed to me as possible. If, for example, I get 29 "they're ok" and 1 "they suck" responses, I've got a better basis to form an opinion. I may indeed fall back on the 'better safe than sorry' direct fit Air-tites, but I'm just interested in finding out the truth about the ring-types. I don't like to do things because I don't know enough about the alternative - I like to form a reasoned opinion based on as much data as possible, then do what seems to be the most logical. Just call me Spock, I suppose :-)

 

Oh, I'm like that generally, too, especially since I'm a graduate student in a science field (astronomy in this case). I just saw this as a case where there's a simple solution and you can avoid the question completely for your current situation. I always try to gather all the facts about something before I make a decision, but if there's a seemingly simpler way of doing it, I take that road usually. I'm kinda anti-Rober Frost in that sense, I suppose.

[TomB]

I know I have read at least one, and perhaps more, threads about the foam rings used for these where it was believed the rings imparted material or color on the coins they were surrounding. The threads were likely on the PCGS boards, but I do not have a link for them.

 

I gues we have a bunch of scientists here? Count me in on the crowd (Hoot, too).

[EZ_E]

My job in radiology is more in the applied science field, so, in my limited application of the ring-type holders, I have had no problems.

 

I personally like the esthetics of the black ring on silver coins in the 38-40mm air-tites. The few I have have been stable in the two years that the coins have been there. Note that the storage conditions have been less than ideal so they have been subject to the seasonal fluctuations.

 

I still think that storage in Eagle Albums with the 20 per page is a decent way to store the coins although I have been moving away from this method.

[pendragon1998]

I ended up ordering 20 direct fit small dollar Air-Tites from JP's corner (such a wonderful site, btw, great shipping speed, wonderful attention paid to packing, decent prices). I also ordered the 20-slot box they make for Air-Tites - it comes with 20 sturdy cards, about 3x3, with black velvety material on one side and some sort of durable plastic on the reverse. The cards fit into slots in the (very heavy duty) box so the cards can't move around in it.

 

They came this morning and I put my SBA collection into the Air-Tites and loaded them into the cards. Since a complete SBA set has 20 coins, the box will be perfect for them. The coins looked really]/i] snazzy when mounted in the black cards, and I'm very, very happy with the overall product. Only issue I had was the Air-Tites came with a little manufacturing dust (much like cardboard 2x2's) that I had to take the time to wipe off carefully with a clean cloth. Otherwise went together like a dream.

 

I decided to reopen on after I capped it, in order to brush away a fleck of dust I missed. Just by being patient and using the X-acto knife's blade, I slowly opened the capsule with no problem - took 20 seconds max. I'll definitely be using Air-tites for my liberty head nickel collection once it gets going.

 

Cost at the marvelous JP's corner

Air-tites - $0.49/ea

Air-tite storage box - $7.50 (holds 20 cards, optional black, burgandy, or blue velvet on cards)

Air-tite album for A-sized capsules $15.95 (my present for myself when I finish the SBA collection.)