The Framers Forum

I have a set of Maundy Money coins to frame.

Any ideas how to encapsulate the coins so the air does not get to them? I am making the assumption sealed in a frame in not airtight enough to stop tarnishing?

Ideally don't want to cut a separate apertures in a mount for each coin. Purses they came in going in frame along with a letter.

Thanks
Sarah

You can get anoxic "frames" that replace the oxygen with argon - good luck with that - and you can make your own enclosure frame (which it seems the FATG have decided to call anoxic frames) which will (at least in theory and at least for a time) prevent air/gasses from entering but will trap the existing air/gasses inside the frame.

If you really wanted to totally encapsulate the coins without any air you could use clear epoxy resin, or get someone to .... and good luck with that too!

Personally I would tell the customer that (unless they want to spend a LOT of money) to look at the things no differently than they would if they were not framing them, like they were keeping them in a box in a drawer somewhere, maybe a cabinet, where, eventually they may tarnish and may need a rub now and again.

That can be made possible with a frame that allows easy removal but the frame will not be sealed so I would go for the enclosure frame and alphamat artcare boards, which protect against airborne pollutants. The coins can still be removed for cleaning but we're probably talking by a framer, although not very often at all.

How about painting with clear nail varnish? Just an idea, but let the customer do it.

I think you can get small airtight cases for coins. You could place each coin in it's own case and frame them all together.

I wouldn't apply any sealants/varnishes. Sometimes what you think is a method of preservation actually has an adverse effect
on the value. A tarnished coin is better than one that has been polished from a collectors point of view.

You can get anti-tarnishing strips which you could incorporate into the frame.

https://www.kernowcraft.com/jewellery-m ... per-strips

And have the frame brought back every year or two to replace them.

Have a look on eBay, there are a range of air tight coin containers readily available for popular coin sizes. Once the coin is sealed inside you can hardly tell the're there.

Thanks all, will post the final decision and frame!

Roboframer please could you tell me what an enclosure frame is and how to make it??

Thanks

There's probably a video or two out there but anyway ....

There are only two TRUE barriers to both water and water vapour, metal and glass - most frames have the glass bit covered but it would not be practicable to have glass back and front and you cannot seal with glass ... or metal - at least not easily, you'd be talking welding/soldering/fusion ... not any sort of tape.

An enclosure frame seals the back with bacofoil (other brands are available) and, in a nutshell (which is fairly watertight, ask any squirrel) you place your glass/mount/undermount "Sandwich" on a sheet of tin foil - the glass has thin double sided tape on the front edges, you fold the foil on to the DS tape and trim the excess off.

It's a step above sealing the "sandwich" with tape, foil tape or otherwise because the whole back is covered with metal ................. BUT the DS tape used is not glass or metal and so air CAN still permeate.

I think we have to always remember that the wonderful people preaching these methods are paid to do so and we are left to work out the pros and cons.

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How about this:

http://www.conservation-resources.co.uk ... nho8p2t155

The capsule only last 12 months, so it will need replacing periodically.

There used to be a product called silver safe which was used for protecting silverware and early types of photographs, but I can't remember who supplied it.

Thank you Roboframer (what is your proper name??) and Mark. Am thinking using enclosure method and capsule will do the job.

My real name is John Turner

And I have been calling you Tarquin all these years.

I only tell special people my middle name

As I've been thinking about this, I remembered that aluminium had a connection with silver tanishing, but could think what it was, but now I have found out.

http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/homeexpts/TARNISH.html

This is quite interesting, because the aluminium foil may well mean that there might be no need to replace the anti-tarnish capsule, as any free suphur in the inside of the enclosure will be strongly attracted to the aluminium in preference to the silver. This is only conjecture at present, but I think that this is probably correct. Twenty years ago, I still had all my chemistry books and could have found out for sure, but alas not now.

You need to read the whole item in the link to understand what I am talking about. I used to design gas anaylisers to measure down to parts per billion and needed to know this stuff at one time. These days it takes a while to remember things that you used to know.

Done!

Nicely done!

Thank you!