Mounting currency between two panes

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dj okay

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Jan 23, 2009
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Ortonville, Michigan
I am about to frame a sheet of uncut currency. I am going to use two sheets of .093 acrylic and "sandwich" the sheet in between, then mount it in two identical frames, back-to-back, so the reverse side of the money can be seen.

My question is how to get the currency to stay in place. Has anyone done this before? How did you do it without it being visible? And if you affix the currency to the glazing, is it better to put a space between the panes, as opposed to sandwiching the currency in between?

Thanks,
dj
 
I did it by using a double mat on both sides of the item being framed. I wrapped the item in Mylar so I could then use an adhesive tape to hold it in place. I used regular points to keep everything in place and then very neatly covered the edge of the frame and points with frame sealing tape. My customer only wanted to be able to see the back, it was never to be hung with that side out.

Candy
 
If I understand correctly.... you are cutting the acrylic the same size as the sheet of currency. So where is the problem?

Where would the sheet "fall" too? If it is pinched between to sheets of acrylic.... where is it going to go?
 
Baer Charlton said:
If I understand correctly.... you are cutting the acrylic the same size as the sheet of currency. So where is the problem?

Where would the sheet "fall" too? If it is pinched between to sheets of acrylic.... where is it going to go?
Click to expand...

I sandwiched some antique doilies several years ago between two panes of glass. After a few years, I noticed they had shifted a bit. I was thinking the same thing could happen with the currency.
 
if there was space for the doilies to slide down.... I wouldn't be surprised.
But if the paper is sitting on the frame, and squeezed between the two sheets of acrylic.... where will it go? Into the frame?

IF, on the other hand you are providing the dreaded "papyrus free floating in mid air" none mat inches around.... Yes, the paper can and will start to slip down the acrylic.

IF is was something super slick like slick copy magazine stock, or CibaChrome, or.... the "static mount" will be pretty much secure.
BUT, because the paper of currency is a fabric paper... there is no static [except with a stack of new bills :D]... and because they have no real intrinsic value beyond their face. . . a couple of tiny pin-head drops of Pure PVA or rice starch paste would go a long long way to keeping the floated money floating.
 
Thank, Baer!

I wasn't explicit, I guess. Yes, I was planning on leaving a clear "matting" around the currency by cutting the acrylic larger than the sheet and leaving a blank space between the edge of the currency and the frame (in lieu of a mat). So I guess the tiny dot of glue will do to hold it in place. I was just wondering if anyone had done this before. My customer had seen the currency framed without a mat and didn't like it. I suggested the "blank" space and she seemed to like the idea. I hope she likes it done. I still enjoy my doilies. They "float" on a colored wall space in between two sheets of glass.
 
I think this is a related question. I've read in the past that glass spacers, or frame spacers, are not needed when using acrylic glazing. The explanation being that the acrylic doesn't react to temprature and humidity the way glass does and so does not pose the risk of sticking to the art. I also recently read elsewhere a description of a frame package using acrylic glazing that still used spacers as if not using them was never an option when there is no mat. What's the conventional wisdom on this?
 
"Sticking to the art" is not the problem as much as creating a space that any condensation can cause a decomp problem.

Acrylic in general at 1/8" has an "R" value of about .1, where a 3mm sheet of glass is about .018. This is not much when the tempature in a home swings from 72 to 58 in the low humidity days of winter.

BUT (and you knew there was one) if the art is hung on an outside wall, the swings can be as dramatic as 30 degrees as the walls in most older homes were never insulated and experience dramatic drops due to their R-values of under 8.
Also an interesting factor in outside walls (even insulated 2x6 construction) The "over all" rating of a wall with 5-1/2" thick R-19 bats of insulation can get a "R-21" rating from the building inspectors book. But you can still be in a world of trouble if the picture is hung directly over a stud (doesn't everyone that uses only one nail ... look for the stud?) The R-value born out by thermography gives the "thermal bridge" where the stud is nailed to the sheetrock and the outside weather barrier the rating can be as low as R-8; which means in the dead of winter in Montana where the temp went -30 overnight, the 2" strip of wall behind the frame could be as low as frozen with the room temp at 68..... causing all sorts of havoc.
I have actually seen Foxing show up as two stripes on a very large piece that bridged the two studs, and the two strips were 24" on center... the same as the studs. (24"OC is old style spacing in California)

The "spacing" between sheets of glass or acrylic also depend on what the art is. If you are sandwiching a two sided image between two mats like I did in the current issue of DECOR magazine, the mats not only act as a spacer, but also a thermal buffer that helps regulate the internal temperature.
 
That's a lot of interesting information, and I don't mean to sound like a smarta**, but what's the bottom line on using spacers with acrylic? Are you saying that, regardless of whether it's glass or acrylic, the airspace is needed in order to prevent possible damage, in other words, err on the side of caution?
 
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