Thank You Will,
Their small hologen's Will, but I rarely have them on for an extended period of time or pointed directly at the display. They're usually pointed down on my desk, I pulled one up for the pick.
I think you meant "halogens". I saw "hologen" and thought you bought some Star Wars memorabilia!
Lee Asher's pamphlet on the care and feeding of Jerry's Nuggets would apply to any decks in one's collection. My personal suggestion would be to use indirect lighting and keep all display items under "museum-grade" clear fiberglass (the difference is that it filters out UV rays). Keeping the area climate-controlled is also important - Lee specifies the correct temperature and humidity level.
Any time you're protecting any sort of ephemeral artifact, particularly an older artifact made of paper, the keys are a controlled environment, protecting the items from accidental or uncontrolled exposure to:
* light, especially UV rays
* temperature
* humidity - use humidifiers or dehumidifiers as needed for your space
* handling - some just use clean hands while others go as far as white-glove treatment
* acid or other corrosives used in either the substance it's made of or the substance that protects it.
Old comic books were cheaply manufactured on papers that had a built-in acid content, causing the paper to corrode and destroy itself over time. (Remember, in the early days of comic books, no one ever thought to keep them for more than a few weeks before disposing of them and getting new ones - they were cheap and disposable.) Archival preservation of old comic books includes chemically treating the paper to neutralize the acid, replacing the rusted steel staples with new, anti-corrosive ones and sealing it all in a neutral-pH plastic material (many different plastic bags not created for archiving also contain corrosives that can destroy the artifact).
I mention the comic books because much of what holds true for them also holds true for playing cards in terms of archival storage. I knew of a collector who went through the trouble of using a resealer to put a brand new cellophane wrapper on his vintage decks, in order to preserve not just the cards but the boxes they came in as well - they tend to take a lot of damage over the years they're used to protect the deck inside of them. The only thing that's tougher to find with many vintage and antique decks are (for those that had them) the joker or jokers; then, as is often true now, many people dispose of them immediately when opening the tuck box.
But yeah, I digress just a bit - it's very possible to create a suitable archive for one's collection, assuming you have the space available.
