Taking Care of Your Silver
Last week we covered silver that doesn’t require much care. Most brilliant uncirculated or numismatic silver, however, will require careful handling in order to maintain your silver’s condition and value.
Handling Silver
When you purchase brilliant uncirculated coins like American Silver Eagles, Canadian Silver Maple Leafs or Perth Mint coins, you should take care not to remove them from their original packaging lest they become nicked, scratched or dented from handling or mishandling. These coins will retain their resale value if they are kept in as near untouched condition as possible and stores in low moisture settings.
While you should avoid handling brilliant uncirculated and numismatic coins, here are some tips for handling your silver when you must, either to examine or to transfer to better storage.
Use Gloves
Fingers, even clean ones, may have soapy residue or natural oils that can smudge or damage your silver coins or rounds. A pair of cotton gloves will allow you to handle your gloves without worry that you might be damaging the surface of your silver.
Silver Tarnishes BUT – Do Not Clean
Resist the temptation of clean your silver with harsh abrasive or chemicals. Cleaning silver can damage your coins and lower their value.
Storing Silver – Flips, Capsules & Tubes
Storing silver in low moisture or airtite contains will help ensure that your silver does not lose its brilliant lustre or become scratched, nicked or dented. Here are some ways to store your silver.
Flips
Plastic flips are an inexpensive way to store individual silver coins and rounds. Flips take up less space than airtite capsules, but leave your silver exposed unless they are heat sealed.
Air Tite Capsules
Air tite capsules ensure your silver is not exposed to the elements, and also protect your silver from being damaged from any object that might come in contact with the capsule.
Browse airtite capsules for sale by size
Tubes
Tubes are an economical way to store larger amounts of silver coins and rounds. Sealed tubes provide protection from the elements and are study enough to prevent damage from blunt or sharp instruments. Silver coins and rounds, however, may develop wear or get nicked from moving in loosely packed tubes. Silver coins and rounds must be carefully placed into tubes and removed with equal care to avoid damage from the silver coins and rounds banging against each other.
Browse different silver storage tubes
Buy Sonically-Sealed Graded Coins from NGC and PCGS
Numismatic grading services Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) and Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) provide coin grading services, whereby they grade coins on a scale from 1 to 70. After grading, the coins are placed in airtite sonically sealed containers (see MS-70 American Silver Eagle below) to ensure the integrity of the coin’s grade long after the coin is graded.
This article by BGASC is not, and should not be regarded as, investment advice or as a recommendation regarding any particular course of action.