What Is The Best Way To Store Old Currency? 

There are a lot of right ways and a lot of wrong ways to store currency.  We highly recommend that you store collectible currency in a plastic Mylar sleeve.  If possible, keep it in a temperature controlled environment.

Bank notes were sometimes preserved in books back in the days before plastic.  Keeping money in a book really isn’t a bad thing.  However, some book pages are acidic and can leach chemicals into the money.  Books can also press out details that make currency original.  Collectors like to see embossing and paper waves.  Storing currency in a book can press out that originality.

A lot of times people will describe a note like this:  “the note is from 1929 it is in great condition, we have kept it in a book for 30 years”.  While 30 years in a book will certainly flatten a note (which is frowned upon), it in no way improves the quality.  Having spent 30 years well protected in a safe deposit box will not make up for the note’s first 50 years of circulation.

When describing your currency, try to focus less on how long you have had it, where you got it, where you kept it, etc.  Dealers, collectors, and other buyers care more about the current condition and not where it has been for the past 30 years.