My Grandfather's Collection... (Help with Morgans)
So, I finally got my grandfather's coin collection from my grandmother for Christmas and it was a relatively large collection, but it wasn't stored very well. He kept everything in a steel Sentry fireproof safe that looks like it's older than many of the coins in the collection. I will post pictures of a lot of what I've found as I go through it all, but I wanted to start by finding out if there is anything I can do to reverse some of the damage done to some of the coins.
My guess is this safe wasn't opened in like 30 years. The most recent coins I found were clad Ikes and based on the rolls of BU coins that were stashed in it, I'm guessing he started his collection in the early to mid-60's and stopped collecting in the early 70's. Most of the coins were stored loose, and I was able to find some really nice stuff in the loose coins, like these:
The Liberty Seated Half is one of the best coins I've found in the collection so far (if it were only missing that motto...):
Other than loose coins there were a few rolls of each denomination, a few of them were just random dates and condition, while most were BU rolls from the late 50s and early 60s. The rest of his collection was in Whitman folders. These were clearly where he spent his time, trying to fill in the gaps he was missing. I was psyched to find all 4 Morgan folders and the Peace Dollar folder. There were around 80 silver (Morgan/Peace) Dollars in the collection, and I thought many of them were AU/MS until I started taking them out of the Whitman folders to put them in flips and slabs. It looks like some moisture might have got in the safe at some point, which the Whitman folders soaked up like a sponge, and whatever coats the paper behind each coin ended up on the coin itself. I grabbed a few and took some quick shots to give you an idea...
I'm wondering if there is anything I can do about this, or if it's like one of the countless times that someone has significantly damaged beautiful coins from neglect
Any help would be greatly appreciated, for obvious reasons I would really like to undo the damage that was done here. Honestly, these pictures are a bit of an understatement as well. In person, the obverse of the coins (some of them anyway) have a great luster, while the back looks like it's got a thin coat of rust on it.
So, I finally got my grandfather's coin collection from my grandmother for Christmas and it was a relatively large collection, but it wasn't stored very well. He kept everything in a steel Sentry fireproof safe that looks like it's older than many of the coins in the collection. I will post pictures of a lot of what I've found as I go through it all, but I wanted to start by finding out if there is anything I can do to reverse some of the damage done to some of the coins.
My guess is this safe wasn't opened in like 30 years. The most recent coins I found were clad Ikes and based on the rolls of BU coins that were stashed in it, I'm guessing he started his collection in the early to mid-60's and stopped collecting in the early 70's. Most of the coins were stored loose, and I was able to find some really nice stuff in the loose coins, like these:
The Liberty Seated Half is one of the best coins I've found in the collection so far (if it were only missing that motto...):
Other than loose coins there were a few rolls of each denomination, a few of them were just random dates and condition, while most were BU rolls from the late 50s and early 60s. The rest of his collection was in Whitman folders. These were clearly where he spent his time, trying to fill in the gaps he was missing. I was psyched to find all 4 Morgan folders and the Peace Dollar folder. There were around 80 silver (Morgan/Peace) Dollars in the collection, and I thought many of them were AU/MS until I started taking them out of the Whitman folders to put them in flips and slabs. It looks like some moisture might have got in the safe at some point, which the Whitman folders soaked up like a sponge, and whatever coats the paper behind each coin ended up on the coin itself. I grabbed a few and took some quick shots to give you an idea...
I'm wondering if there is anything I can do about this, or if it's like one of the countless times that someone has significantly damaged beautiful coins from neglect
Any help would be greatly appreciated, for obvious reasons I would really like to undo the damage that was done here. Honestly, these pictures are a bit of an understatement as well. In person, the obverse of the coins (some of them anyway) have a great luster, while the back looks like it's got a thin coat of rust on it.
