My new mahogany Coin Cabinet

[Rosa Potatos]

A beautiful cabinet with impressive coins, looks so neat and minimal with no labels. Mine look such a mess compared, with tags under and stickers next to the holes. I have Peter Nichols ones with, I assume, woollen felt in. Hope I don't damage the felt by putting all those rough ancient coins in them...!

I'm just wondering to myself, I did put them in worse side down didn't I?

[Kaleun96]

On 7/3/2022 at 12:19 AM, sand said:

@Kaleun96 Nice cabinet. You have a nice collection of large silver pieces. Are the round green fabric inserts made of coarse wool?

Just heard back from Rob on the felt inserts, he says they're a synthetic felt and not wool felt. Not sure how much of a difference that might make in terms of abrasion, have you come across anything?

[sand]

1 hour ago, Kaleun96 said:

Just heard back from Rob on the felt inserts, he says they're a synthetic felt and not wool felt. Not sure how much of a difference that might make in terms of abrasion, have you come across anything?

Hello @Kaleun96

Do your felt inserts feel scratchy or rough? It seems like that would matter, but I'm not certain.

I haven't researched the differences, between synthetic felt versus wool felt. I'm not even sure what "felt" means, exactly. Also, I don't know, if felt, in general, will damage ancient coins. After I read the posts, of those 2 persons in the Forum Ancient Coins thread (see my previous post in this thread), who said that the Abafil velvet trays don't seem to damage coins, I mostly stopped researching, because I use Abafil velvet trays.

One idea. You mentioned, that your round pieces of felt, are removable. You could create your own round pieces of velvet. I'm guessing, that velvet fabric is easy and inexpensive to purchase on Amazon. You could purchase some velvet fabric, of whatever color you want. You could create cardboard disks, which are the same sizes as the round holes in your trays. One cardboard disk for each hole size. Then, you could use a marker, to trace circles on the back of the velvet fabric, using the cardboard disks. Then, you could cut out round pieces of velvet, and put the round pieces of velvet in your tray holes.

One of those 2 Forum Ancient Coins persons, said that, to the best of that person's knowledge, the Abafil velvet is made of cotton (see my previous post in this thread). Perhaps, you may want to ensure, that the velvet that you buy, is 100% cotton. Or, there may be other types of velvet, that are less abrasive than cotton velvet. I don't know. There may even be other fabrics or materials, that are less abrasive than velvet. I don't know. Satin is pretty slick. Et cetera. Also, perhaps, some brands of velvet, are less abrasive, than other brands, depending on how the velvet is constructed.

Edited July 6, 2022 by sand

[Tetradogma]

On 7/3/2022 at 1:38 PM, sand said:

I'm wondering, if the felt, is wool felt. I can't tell, from the photos.

I'm not an expert in this area. I'm not certain of any of this. My only knowledge, is based on looking at some threads, on CoinTalk and Forum Ancient Coins. My Abafil coin trays are lined with velvet, therefore I didn't research the wool felt, very much. I was mainly researching the effects of velvet.

In my limited reading, I have read, that a tray, that is lined with wool felt, is bad for coins, if the coins are sitting directly on the wool felt, because wool is scratchy. According to what I read, the friction between the wool felt, and the coins, can cause significant wear, on the coins, eventually, if the trays are moved horizontally many times, for example if the trays are slid in and out of a cabinet. I don't know, if the coarseness of the wool felt, makes a difference. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't.

Here is an interesting thread, on Forum Ancient Coins, in which the safety of coin trays is discussed.
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=93219.0 
In the thread, one person said the following :
"The material used in Abafil trays appears to be velvet (to the best of my knowledge made of cotton), while some other types of trays are lined with felt (most appear to be wool). Felt will damage the coins, velvet will not. My coins are stored in Abafil trays, some for nearly fourteen years, and in examining them under magnification and comparing them to the original photos, I cannot detect any damage caused by this method of storage."
In the same thread, Andrew McCabe, a well known collector of ancient Roman Republic coins, said the following :
"I think the distinction to watch for is that sliding trays (drawers in a coin cabinet) will move the coins on their felt every single time the tray is pulled out, whereas lifted out trays in a box won't, unless the box itself is shook about. I've seen photos of coin surfaces being destroyed by wool felt, really bad damage, so its worth being aware of. However whatever is in abafil tray felt seems to do my coins no harm at all. And I doubt it would be possible to ever damage a worn bronze. FDC silver might be another matter. So, some caution needed but the nature of the trays felt and coins is important."

And I found this thread : https://www.cointalk.com/threads/question-is-there-a-difference-between-satin-and-velvet-coin-trays.297358/#post-2756640 

In which someone said the following : "For example, wool felt is notoriously abrasive, and is known to cause "cabinet wear" to coins over time. Velvet is softer, less abrasive and less risky than wool felt."

And this thread : https://www.cointalk.com/threads/two-storage-questions.268585/#post-2235811 

In which someone said the following : "I would advise keeping your coins away from the following ... Any cabinet with Wool-felt or any other non-synthetic insert. Several years of pulling your trays will scratch/wear the surface of the coin that is in contact with the insert."

Sorry, know this is an old post, was chatting with @Kaleun96 about Rob Davis cases then saw @sand interesting comments on cabinet wear, got me thinking, doing some googling.

It appears most velvet is a silk/viscose mix and usually about 18% silk, 82% viscose, and dyed. I am fairly confident most trays use this silk/viscose mix as pure silk velvet is insanely expensive. I have an Abafil tray and it is advertised as velvet but does not specify synthetic or natural. Presumably the former.

Either way I think synthetic silk velvet probably significantly reduces cabinet wear compared to the more abrasive wool felt. I do wonder about off-gassing from the viscose though as I don't believe it is an inert material, would be interested in anyones thoughts on this. Incidentally don't think anyone mentioned above that these coin trays are mahogany and untreated. I spoke to Rob about this as I was interested and he said he bought a huge stock of mahogany a few years ago as it is now an endangered wood and not commercially available. I think this makes Rob's cabinets really unique because mahogany is the timber traditionally used for long term storage of coins (the British Museum uses it) as it is one of the most "stable" timbers and doesn't off gas