Conservation Coin of the Month
Of all the acronyms that numismatists throw around, the dreaded PVC strikes fear into the hearts of many. PVC residue is encountered when coins have been stored in commonly used soft flips in an environment with too much humidity. Soft flips are intended to be temporary coin storage. The substance of these soft coin flips will leach out and deposit onto the surface of a coin. If left on the surface of a coin, this haze will turn green, opaque, and potentially damaging to the surface of the coin.
This Texas Centennial Commemorative Half Dollar was recently submitted with the hopes of removing the dreaded PVC residue. This coin is typical of how a coin can look after years of resting unprotected inside a soft plastic flip with its thick, even bright green, ooze. The conservators at NCS were able to skillfully remove the offending residue and reveal a bright coin underneath. Luckily, the residue had not reached a point where it was damaging the original surface of the coin. This coin was able to grade with NGC following professional conservation.
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