Silica gel

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I was day dreaming about paper money again for the 5000th time today, and I was wondering if silica gel good for safes and notes? Is it possible to overdry a note to the point of cracking? Is there a certain humidity percentage that is optimum for storage of notes?

Great question - I will also eagerly await some opinions on this, as I have a safety deposit box.  I've put two silica packets in my SDB, but I never thought about the over-drying angle...

Humidity level in paper should be the same as kiln dried lumber, 13-19 %.
Too dry, it will crack, too humid it will rot.

Average indoor humidity in the winter is about 50% in Southern Ontario. A couple of silica gel packages with a group of notes will attract the excess moisture to them. Change them fairly often, a couple of times a year.

Most bank vaults are pretty dry inside.

Rick

I think you will find that bank vaults are dry enough, they are usually left open during the day time or at least opened often.  I would be (and I am) concerned about home safes. Usually in the basement (damp) and usually not opened too often.  When White Rose stores were in business, I got silica gel from them that had indicating crystals in them which were blue when the gel was dry then turned pink when you needed to bake it dry.  I put the gel in an old plastic peanut butter jar which I had cut a large hole in the plastic lid, nearly the size of the lid, then cut a piece of non waxed non painted cardboard like cereal box, to cover the cut out and not let the gel spill out.

I don't know where to get that now but when I did get it from White Rose, it was in the craft section used to dry flowers.  Maybe other craft shops would have it.

Tom  

Radio Shack or other electronic stores often sell silica gel in small amounts.

Rick

Now that I think about it I guess Michael's craft store would probably have all types of silica gel. I wanna thank everyone for a constant supply of solid info, man I love this site!!!

Thanks

Manny

I got some on ebay.

I went to a "work boot" store and asked for the packs of silica that are placed in every boot shipment container. The bags I received are approximately 2" x 1.5" x 1" and contain a lot of product and to "boot" ... are free!  ;)I even put one in my car in the winter !

Another good source is your neighbourhood pharmacy - their bulk pill shipments contain cylinders of silica gel which they just throw away.  Befriend your pharmacist and you'll soon have a useful pile.

Just bought about a kilo of flower silica gel at Michaels craft store for $15.