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.
First of all, I use padded envelopes that are much more robust than a standard envelope.
Then, I try to make the packaging more solid using a lot of tape, I tape several times the envelopes.
I am always surprised when someone sends also non-trivial coins, in a plain light envelope closed by the the envelope own glue.
I try and make the exchange as big as possible, thus making registered mail more viable. As previously stated, using a padded envelope is best. I generally put coins/banknotes between two pieces of cardboard thus disguising the contents.
If, when send outside of Europe, I have to attach a customs form, but just write "collectables" on the form.
Having made many transaction over the last 10 years or so, I have never had a problem.
