As I live in a topical climate country, I sealed my banknotes in non-oil based plastic sheet for utimate protection. Share your view on how to protect your banknotes. I have also just created a flash show detailing the process of sealing a banknote. It is under my website articles section. Here is the link.

http://www.notepassion.com/Articles/sealing-banknote.htm

Cheers..

Nicelyl done instruction piece. This seems to be a really good idea.

Interesting flash show, see323! I have got some banknotes from Singapore that was sealed by similar manner. In Sweden, at least indoors the air is mostly dry, because of the isolation in the houses. Most houses use tripple glass for the windows, sometimes with gas sealing, because of the cold winters. This can be a problem for old furnititure that might get cracks because of the dryness indoors.

For protecting banknotes I use Abaxa Banknote binders and plastic banknote pages, which is a brand much used in Sweden. I also use the Lembit brand for some of my banknotes, as they display bigger and collourful banknotes better. This is also a swedish brand, I think. This companies have a long and good reputation by swedish numismatic collectors.
// Joakim

Nice one see323. The flash was a bit too "heavy" in terms of download bandwidth - you might want to reduce the bitrate of the mp3 that you are using.

A suggestion that I might recommand that is using a cutter board or a guillotine board for making sharp straight cuts but again optional.

Thanks for the great flash.

You are right. I did this in a hurry. I shall reduce the mp3 song not by bit rate ( that will lose some quality in the music piece ) but by the length of the song. In fact, it did not use up the whole song. I did the reduction before but my trial mp3 software for trimming the mp3 song ran out. As for the photos, they are reduced in size as smaller jpeg files. My only concern is the copyright issue on the song. May just have to acknowledge the composer later in the flash show.

I do have a cutter but it is kind of troublesome when I only seal one or two pieces. A scissor works better and more handy. Those little hands are my son as I need to take shots with my DSLR and direct him to pose in various position in the process.

Glad that it helps those who may be new to banknote sealing and also those experienced collectors alike

I have not yet used non-plasticized holders for my banknotes, but have for some years with my coins. Only problem I notice with them over the long term, ie like 5 years is that they break down and start developing splits and cracks.

I have a large collection of 18th century banknotes which I would like to store in such a fashion that they will be preserved for the long term(one unfortunately was not before I got it, and is disentegrating) Currently I just have these stored in inert paper envelopes in a bank vault.

Oil based plastics have very harmful long term consequences, I will image the 1786 Rhode Island 40 Shillings note sometime to show the effects of miserable storage.

I once had a 1926 £1 from the North of Scotland Bank that had been stored in a PVC based page, it was completely imbedded with the oils from the PVC page, so when it was sold it sold for a fraction of what the value for the undamaged example would have gone for.

I have not yet used non-plasticized holders for my banknotes, but have for some years with my coins. Only problem I notice with them over the long term, ie like 5 years is that they break down and start developing splits and cracks.

That's true. They crack and splits. In my case, I kept my older collection 20 years ago in the bank vaults as well. All sealed up. A few piece have some cracks and splits. Majority of them are still in relatively good condition. Luckily, non of them are with oil-based PVC sheets. Two days ago, I opened up a few of my 20 years old banknotes plastic sheet. They remained in original condition 20 years ago when I first purchase them. Sealing them does help in protecting our banknotes whether as a collection or for investment.

I have a large collection of 18th century banknotes which I would like to store in such a fashion that they will be preserved for the long term(one unfortunately was not before I got it, and is disentegrating) Currently I just have these stored in inert paper envelopes in a bank vault.

Oil based plastics have very harmful long term consequences, I will image the 1786 Rhode Island 40 Shillings note sometime to show the effects of miserable storage.

Yes, it is very true. They totally destroy the note and it's value.

I once had a 1926 £1 from the North of Scotland Bank that had been stored in a PVC based page, it was completely imbedded with the oils from the PVC page, so when it was sold it sold for a fraction of what the value for the undamaged example would have gone for.


Awaiting to see your picture.

Interesting, I might have to try that. I think I might do one thing different, I think I might play something other than Kenny G. when I seal banknotes

Very nice instruction! I can imagine the need for this in your climate!

I have received the last Hansatsu notes I bought in a sealed state not unlike what you have done with your notes. As these notes are from the 18th and 19th centuries and they were in a more tropical environment, I can see the benefit of having them sealed. However, as soon as I got them I was worried about the type of plastic used, so I promptly removed them and placed them into my folders.

I use the ULTRA-PRO Platinum series holders for all my notes. These are archival, acid free, PVC free, and UV protective. Hopefully there will not be anything bad discovered about them in the years to come! I store them in a fire proof safe, and as yet I haven't noticed any moisture/condensation, but I am considering using some silica gel packs or something anyway.

I have never had a note from one of the grading services, but from the photos I have seen of them, I imagine that they use a very similar process to the one you employ.

Very nice instruction! I can imagine the need for this in your climate!

Tropical humid climate are a real challenge for banknote collector.

I have received the last Hansatsu notes I bought in a sealed state not unlike what you have done with your notes. As these notes are from the 18th and 19th centuries and they were in a more tropical environment, I can see the benefit of having them sealed. However, as soon as I got them I was worried about the type of plastic used, so I promptly removed them and placed them into my folders.

Yes, they usually uses cheap plastic sheet from Thailand. But some cheap ones from Thailand are really good. Some turn yellowish over the years but they did not affect the banknotes.

I use the ULTRA-PRO Platinum series holders for all my notes. These are archival, acid free, PVC free, and UV protective. Hopefully there will not be anything bad discovered about them in the years to come! I store them in a fire proof safe, and as yet I haven't noticed any moisture/condensation, but I am considering using some silica gel packs or something anyway.

In my case, I seal them up and keep them in the bank safe box. I have a huge one for storage and safety. It is usually much dry in the safe box as they have a 24 hours air-con switch on.

I have never had a note from one of the grading services, but from the photos I have seen of them, I imagine that they use a very similar process to the one you employ.

I have seen some of these sealing from the American grading service company such as PMG, PCGS etc. One of them, I cannot remember which one uses two pieces of thick transparent block of plastic and place them together using bolt and nuts. It's heavy and they have to be taken out in order to be send overseas.

Having them sealed up is still the best protection for your investment over the years.

see, what kind of plastic is it? Non-oil? I know it's PVC free but I can't seem to find one on the net.

As well as if you don't mind telling me where you get the plastics from, where do you get them from?

See the next message for reply

This is a Germany brand Lighthouse ( Germany brand name is Leuchtturm )which is well-known in stamp album and banknotes album etc . A very old and established brand which produces high quality items relating to numismatics needs. I got those loose sheet of plastic which are originally for banknote album. Since I do not use the banknote album anymore as i kept all my notes sealed up in my safe box.

The German website is at : http://www.leuchtturm.com/

The US website is http://www.lighthouse.us/

In my case, I got them from a local stamp shop.

As I have thrown away the front cover sheet stating the model series of these plastic sheet, I believe it should be this model series in the website. I prefer the three pocket type as it does cover most of my needs. In some older banknotes where are much larger, I purchase either a single pocket or a twin pockets.

http://www.lighthouse.us/epages/lighthouse...Catalog=C010547

I am sure you will have them in your local numismatic shop.

In North America it is not easy to find archival material for long term storage of paper money. Usually I would have to go to a show to find it, none of my local dealers will.

If you are not concerned about sealing them, you can use Archival Safe sheet protectors and photo pages made by Avery. I have had my collection in them for about 4 years now, and the notes still look great.....