Very nice! As long as you stay under about .40 a piece you can save money!

I'm not familiar with a coin flip, but do know that regardless of what is used that the contents must be kept under 1/4" thickness and the contents must be flexible in order to go through the many conveyers and sorters.

Is it cardboard, flexible vinyl, or hard plastic? I'm not understanding just how they would protect small seeds and still meet the one postage stamp First Class mail 'letter' requirements. What am I missing?

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Google images coin flips.

Wow, Ricjo22, I think that is a GREAT!!!!! idea for small seeds.

Anyone interested can probably find it with Google by searching for 'cardboard coin flips'. I hope a lot of people see this and are able to use the idea. Local hobby stores (and many larger bookstores) should have these readily available. The cardboard coin flips are thin enough to easily clear the 1/4" requirements, are sturdy enough to resist the evils of the postal service's machines (assuming the envelope holds up), could be taped together to form a larger "page", and are flexible enough and large enough to stand a chance of not damaging a regular envelope. If this works (and it seems to me like it would), this could revolutionize the seed swapping gig and save us lots of money.

Thank you Brandon and thank you for describing the coin flip so well. I taped them into a thank you card so there was the thickness of four layers of paper and the coin flip thickness and it still went thru. there is a lot of experimenting that still needs to be done to test the limits of seed thickness and also long thin seeds . Its no good if the seeds dont come thru viable of course. Sue you are right most seeds are not flexible. I am preparing to send and receive many types of seed this way to test it out.I am looking for my dial caliper so I can measure thicknesses. There may be room to add a thickness of half a flip for thicker seeds if I leave out the thank you note. I need someone sending me seeds so I can examine them with my loop for cracks and try to sprout them. I'm not risking sending any thing rare or precious till i am sure.I have coin flips in all sizes cause i collect coins so i will send them out with seed from my list to anyone willing to send me anything that fits back in them even my own seeds . Anyone know the max weight for one stamp? Isn't it one ounce? I have a great scale.

Here is a link that might be useful: ricjo22's exchange list

Hey Ric!

That should work great and increase the thickness of the seeds that could be sent! I send seeds all over the world tucked into a greeting card with thin bubble wrap on either side and have yet to have a problem reported to me about damage or viability (small seeds or flat ones). I send them all day long for one stamp and the crazy thing is that some of the cards you can buy in the store are way thicker and heavier.The coin flips would be neat and like the bubble envies they could be reused several times!

So I have been to the uspo website and it appears that I can send up to one ounce in a standard business envy for 45 cents ,65 for 2 oz ,85 for 3 oz. there is an issue with flexibility so even though I could stack two or even three coin flips and stay under the thickness maximum(1/4 inch) it would probably be too stiff to be machine handled and would get into trouble. a coin flip is only .060 of an inch a standard letter is less than .010.It passes thru the machine easy I need to look into the cost of higher quality envys that do not tear.I will be testing the limits very soon Ric

still looking for anyone willing to trade just for the sake of testing this method . I will send seed with a sase enclosed so all you need to do is return it with new seed or even with the seed I sent out so i can test them.

Here is a link that might be useful: ricjo22's exchange list

Hi ricjo, I'm willing to give it a try. Will send you an email. Margie

Hi ricjo,

I would love to trade for your Brazilian starfish pepper. Aside from what's on my trade list, I can harvest fresh Agapanthus seed for you in return.

Great idea. I need more of these for my kids' coin collection anyways. Will try it out. Found good prices on ebay.