How To Store And Display Awards.

[Lapa]

Ibaya,

It is either the acid or the chlorine if the cardboard is white.

Marc

[Riley1965]

Cardboard is a medals worse enemy. It will cause such changes to the medals. If you can, put the medals in individual plastic medal sleeves and then go to a dealer of "basebal cards" or go online and order 6 per page card holders. These are then put into a 4 inch thick notebook. This is what I do. As for presentation boxes, I have a shelf in a cabinet for them.

I hope this helps,
Doc

[MONDVOR]

Doc, I would not agree with you about keeping medals in a plastic bags. When I moved to USA I conserved my entire collection in a small plastic ziplog bags. When I transferred my staff two years later to NewYork I found that brass medals got some ugly dark spots on their surface. I believe it's because of some chemical component of plastic. If you keep a brass medal enclosed in such envelope for a long time it might be some type of reaction between the metal and polyethilene compound of plastic bag.
Silver and gold items remained intact.
So for the last few years I keep my medals on a display surface covered with a cotton or wool material which has a transparent glass (not plastic) cover. So far they all doing well, no stains or other damage was found. Just regular good-looking patina. Use natural materials and you will avoid any problems

[Lapa]

Doc, Mondvor,

All plastics were not created equals The most widely available ones contain plasticizer substances that, over time, tend to leak out and corrode most metals. If/when using plastic pockets, you must first ensure that they do not contain any plasticizers. The best option are mylar pockets, expensive but totally inert.

Marc

[MONDVOR]

Marc, probably you are right. But Americans have a proverb like "once biten by a snake you would afraid of a rope"... Something like that, i'm not sure if I said it correct
So I would stay with natural materials. Also I would not be able to verify wether or not the plastic contains those plastcizers... They never provide this information to customers

[Riley1965]

Mondvor,
I wasn't talking about ziplock bags. I was reffering to Standard medal plastic sleeves. These are available from several medal sellers. They do not harm the medal in any way.

Best,
Doc

[MONDVOR]

Oh, I've seen those sleeves. But I thought they are good for transportation or temporary storage. As a permanent storage place they look... a little bit ugly And you can put only one piece per sleeve. For me big display cases look more attractive and can held great number of awards...

[Riley1965]

MONDVOR,
Believe me, I wish I had enough wall space for displays of all of my medals. Sadly I don't. So, I have two (soon to be 3) 4 inch wide notebooks full of pages of medals in these sleeves. I get 100 sleeves for $20.

Best,
Doc

[Nota Bene]

Guys,

Those plastic envelopes are absolutely neutral and will not damage the medals. I believe the same company also makes plastic pages with sections for 6 medals, that you can put in a standard folder.

Alexei

[Dave]

Is it the acid content of the wood pulp in the cardboard used to make the box?

Yep, that's why I've thrown out all the original boxes my awards came in.

I've always kept all of my groups in Ziploc freezer bags (the heaviest ones you can buy) unless they were on display. I never had a problem with it doing anything bad to any of the medals. Of course, if I actually kept a group for longer than two years, I might find out differently! :thumbsup

Dave