SHOW US WHERE YOU KEEP / STORAGE YOUR MEDALS.

[Kallarati Heroik]

ALBUMS, CASES, TRAYS, FRAMES, ETC.

[Elmar Lang]

Well packed in tissue paper and stored in a bank vault...

[Wild Card]

Sorry, can't show you.

My bank does not allow pictures of their vault area.

[Chris Boonzaier]

I keep all of mine at Wild Card's house ?

[Brian Wolfe]

If anyone saw my collection and wanted to rob me they would probably write me a cheque out of pity and leave. ?

Seriously there is little sense in posting any photos of where I store my collection as the medals are all in shallow drawer units that I build in my shop. I counted the drawers once and there was over 300 of them. What the Hell were you thinking; my wife often asks.

Regards

Brian

[1812 Overture]

10 hours ago, Brian Wolfe said:

If anyone saw my collection and wanted to rob me they would probably write me a cheque out of pity and leave. ?

Seriously there is little sense in posting any photos of where I store my collection as the medals are all in shallow drawer units that I build in my shop. I counted the drawers once and there was over 300 of them. What the Hell were you thinking; my wife often asks.

Regards

Brian

Okay Brian, I have sent a killer to rob your collection

[Wild Card]

12 hours ago, Chris Boonzaier said:

I keep all of mine at Wild Card's house ?

And my kids have more darned fun playing with them!

[Kallarati Heroik]

THE MEANING OF THIS TOPIC

The point is I want to see the way you keep them in frames, drawers, trays, cases, boxes, etc.

i not intend to ask you to show me the BANK VAULT or any other HIGH SECURITY PLACE.

I am very sorry if you understand like this.

[Marcon1]

And if you would all include your full name and address than things would make it a lot easier ?

[Elmar Lang]

3 hours ago, Kallarati Heroik said:

THE MEANING OF THIS TOPIC

The point is I want to see the way you keep them in frames, drawers, trays, cases, boxes, etc.

i not intend to ask you to show me the BANK VAULT or any other HIGH SECURITY PLACE.

I am very sorry if you understand like this.

I think that most of us posting replies, tried to put some humour, nothing to feel sorry about!

your question was an interesting one, in its true meaning.

In my case, I've always preserved my collection in velvet lined drawers so, protected from sunlight fading ribbons and easy to be examined witout opening boxes or frames.

Now, sorry to say, due to the difficult times we're all living through, I've decided to keep everything in the bank, after a thorough inventory and photography of all my pieces.

As soon as will have the time, I will prepare a photobook of my collection.

All the best,

 

E.L.

Edited January 22, 2021 by Elmar Lang

[Kallarati Heroik]

18 hours ago, Elmar Lang said:

I think that most of us posting replies, tried to put some humour, nothing to feel sorry about!

your question was an interesting one, in its true meaning.

In my case, I've always preserved my collection in velvet lined drawers so, protected from sunlight fading ribbons and easy to be examined witout opening boxes or frames.

Now, sorry to say, due to the difficult times we're all living through, I've decided to keep everything in the bank, after a thorough inventory and photography of all my pieces.

As soon as will have the time, I will prepare a photobook of my collection.

All the best,

 

E.L.

Thank you for explanation. 

[Brian Wolfe]

Hi 1812 Overture

On 21/01/2021 at 23:11, 1812 Overture said:

Okay Brian, I have sent a killer to rob your collection

Thanks for the warning, I'll make room in the freezer to store the bodies. ?

Regards

Brian

[UnboxingCuba]

On 21/01/2021 at 15:22, Elmar Lang said:

Well packed in tissue paper and stored in a bank vault...

Dear Elmar, this is a problem I usually encounter and typically the solution is either very expensive still being developed. I currently have over 800 medals, pins and other medallic art objects and I struggle with this because I end up considering the map drawers that, although very nice, can be pricey and not to mention the space they take. I have seen some cheaper models at $130-$150 but cheap wood and usually is delivered with corners torn.

The option being developed is an idea I am currently working on with my business partner to basically create custom made cases for each medal, but we are still in early development phase. 

[Igor Ostapenko]

On 22/01/2021 at 19:55, Elmar Lang said:

I think that most of us posting replies, tried to put some humour, nothing to feel sorry about!

your question was an interesting one, in its true meaning.

In my case, I've always preserved my collection in velvet lined drawers so, protected from sunlight fading ribbons and easy to be examined witout opening boxes or frames.

Now, sorry to say, due to the difficult times we're all living through, I've decided to keep everything in the bank, after a thorough inventory and photography of all my pieces.

As soon as will have the time, I will prepare a photobook of my collection.

All the best,

 

E.L.

I need this photobook ! ? 

[Valter]

A bit old topic, but maybe we should revive it. I think Kallarati intended to start a broader theme of storage of medals and other collectibe artefacts. It is important to store any such items in an environment hat will protect them from deterioration. Different materials have different demands, but generally: any light, especially direct sunlight is very damaging in the long run. Same goes with excessive humidity, but too dry environment is also no good. There is a good site of US national park service, with plenty of articles about storage of different artefacts. It mostly focuses on other objects than medals, from folclore items to pottery, paper items to motor vehicles, but it is worth to browse (and downolad and print) to get the general idea of environmental effects on different materials:

 

https://www.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveogram/cons_toc.html

 

Specific to medals and other smaller militaria objects:

 

Display frames of different kinds are very nice, but they must be kept in places with as little environmental fluctuations (humimidity, temperature ...) and off any direct light. So hanging them in your dining room (with sunlight and fumes from cooking, smoking etc.) is not a good idea. Padded drawers are great, but you should keep in mind what materials those drawers are made of. Many woods, including plywood and other composites, coniferous woods (pine, spruce ...) and oak do emit vapors that are harmful to both ribbons and many metals too. The same goes for cheap plastic (pvc). Polietylene is better, and glass is inert material, but air-tight sealed containers aren't good either, as that prevents "breathing" and traps humid, which is harmful.

 

So, wooden boxes, drawers, or boxes made of wood, cardboard and glass are okay, as long as they are made of inert, ph neutral materials (neither acid nor basic). Metal drawers are fine, I use two drawers I got from old doctors office, they were intended for storage of instruments and medicines and are made from dust-painted metal so they should be inert. Most modern paper/wrapping materials are acidic and not suitable, so I use paper wraps of ph neutral (acid-free) paper tissue. You can get these from different suppliers, but artistic drawing/painting paper (you can get them in any art supply shop) is appropriate and you can get it relatively cheap (a scratchbook with 50 or so pages costs under 20 €). For paper items and photos, I use high-quality albums and sleeve pages that you can buy in filately/numismatic shops (intended for first-day covers or postcards) and are made of acid-free materials.

 

How much would you invest in storage, depends of the fact what items do you collect and how much are they worth. For cheap pins/badges or soviet post-ww2 medals a cheaper variant is acceptable, but for more valuable objects you should invest more. That way you preserve your collection as historical artefact (we often say we are only custodians of those items that will be passed to next genetrations and preserved as well as possible for the history), and also its monetary value.

[BalkanCollector]

Very interesting insight Valter! What do you think about silk? I have an old cutlery box with silk lining where I keep some of my medals. The box seems like it's made of thin sheets of wood or maybe even hard cardboard.

[Drugo]

I can warmly recommend this Italian craftsman, from whom I ordered a custom-made drawer last year: https://www.coinsandmore.it/

 

Top quality and craftsmanship, very responsive and helpful in meeting my needs and guide me through selecting materials/sizes etc.

[TJLA]

For longer term items that I planned on storing, or were not possible to display (lots of documents, or presentation boxes)I decided to invest a bit last year on preservation and storage materials that professional groups use like museums and national archives. I turned to Gaylord Archival: www.gaylord.com 

 

A few of things purchased were storage boxes with two different types of pH paper based on materials stored. The storage boxes were for my medal boxes, some being 150 years old and made of materials that are of unknown origin. The boxes, sleeves, etc are all P.A.T. passed. For long term storage you need solutions that do not emit toxins and gasses that will alter and stain your items (medal, coins, paper, boxes). Cardboard boxes emit gasses that change the color of everything (yellowing books etc).

 

These products might give some others ideas for similar ones sold in your country (you can get similar on Amazon). I built out various kits of plastic sleeves and boxes to create multi levels of protection.

 

Modular Box system:

MOD-SYSTEM

 

 

Plug in these parts:

ZZ-UT8511

 

ZZ-BT8511

 

Newspaper archival.

 

ZZ-NPK18133B

 

For display, I've used these wooden display cases of various sizes for years. However, I purchase my own cloth at the local hobby/craft store where you can select quality fabrics or velvets for display. But these materials do fall apart over time and need to be replaced. The cheaper inserts they provide fall apart much faster over time...

 

http://www.wooddisplaycases.com/standard-display-cases/

 

But none of these are archival or P.A.T. passed, not sure how to elegantly display a nice collection while still being anal about preservation. So long term storage of items that can't be seen or quickly accessed get the Gaylord system as noted in the first paragraph.

Edited February 13, 2022 by TJLA