Trouble mailing coins?

I live in northern Italy and about 2 years ago I had a coin sent to me by a friend in England. The envelope arrived in good time but In bad shape. The envelope had been opened, the coin removed, and the post office had sealed the damaged envelope in plastic with a note stating it had been "damaged" by postal equipment. It wasn't a very valuable coin, but since joining numista I have been shy of using the Italian post.

My question, to all the conscientious dedicated swappers out there, is... What do you do in terms of packaging and shipping to minimize your shipping risk? I assume you track or insure coins, especially higher value swaps. I am new to this and would like to hear from you.
Friuli

• Use a sturdy envelope
  
• Package each coin with paper/tissue/cardboard
  
• Use cardboard to seal the coins
  
• Make sure there are no sounds when you shake it
  
• Use registered post/delivery services (e.g. DHS)
  
• Minimize swap (fewer coins) for lower risk
  
• On the declaration list, write something not coins if it is banned (e.g. metal dishes, saucers, metal plates)
  

Very good recommendations, thank you squarerootlolly. When you wrote, "minimize swap" how many do to think is too much? Or does it depend on value?

How north is north?

If you feel Posta is not safe, you could easily set up a Po Box in Lugano or similar locations

Quote: "Friuli"​Very good recommendations, thank you squarerootlolly. When you wrote, "minimize swap" how many do to think is too much? Or does it depend on value?

​Depends on value.

Despite being a bit off topic, one Serbian package was opened and sent for investigation due to the valuable coins

Currently my three mails are held by customs ! don't know what they are up to one from Canada,1 from Italy and one I was sending to Belgium i hope they will release them soon .It depends on Luck I never had any problem in any of my earlier swaps.good packing is always important ,But it still depends on Customs what they want to do with your post.........

Quote: "SquareRootLolly"​

Quote: "Friuli"​Very good recommendations, thank you squarerootlolly. When you wrote, "minimize swap" how many do to think is too much? Or does it depend on value?

​​Depends on value.
​
​Despite being a bit off topic, one Serbian package was opened and sent for investigation due to the valuable coins

https://en.numista.com/forum/topic68638.html

In case you're interested.
Correction though, those particular ones weren't "valuable coins". Not by a looooong shot. ​

--- instead of mailing the coins, you could also personally deliver them.

I imagine that would reduce the number of complaints.