My basement, like most, is humid—not the cool, dry place you want to keep your coins.  The moisture beads prove how wet the air is!

Keeping spending change in glass jars is fine.  It's not a good idea for collectibles, though. As the coins jangle around, they will scratch each other.

It might look cool to pick up coins with pincers, but chances are you'll scrape or drop them.  Clean hands are best—just be sure to touch only the coins' edges.  Leave the fingerprint kit to crime solvers!

If you're curious, you can weigh your coins.  But you don't need to.  Before coins, though, people had to weigh each piece of metal for its value.  That's why coins have denominations stamped on them.

[return] to Case 5: Detecting Who's Collecting