Packing and shipping specimens

Museum loan practice, which is what the SPNHC guidance codifies, uses a box inside a box. The inner box holds the specimen wrapped and immobilised; the outer box holds the inner box floating in at least 5 cm of cushioning on every side. The two boxes decouple the specimen from the impact.

Wrap the specimen first in soft, unbuffered acid-free tissue (so nothing sticks to the surface), then in a layer of polyethylene foam or bubble wrap with the bubbles facing out. Cut a cavity in a block of Ethafoam or use crumpled paper packed tight so the piece cannot shift at all; a specimen that can move inside its box will break. Fragile projections (ammonite keels, fish fins in plates, crinoid arms) get a foam bridge over them so nothing bears on the projection.

Plates and slabs travel vertically, on edge, sandwiched between two boards cut larger than the plate, with foam between plate and board; a plate laid flat in the bottom of a box takes every impact on its face. Very thin plates get a rigid backing board glued to a foam sheet, not to the plate.

Put the label, the invoice and any certificate in a sealed plastic sleeve inside the inner box, and a copy in the outer. Tape the box on every seam. Mark it “fragile” for morale, but pack as though nobody reads it. Insure for full value with the carrier or a third party; couriers exclude fossils and minerals from some standard cover, so read the schedule.

For meteorites, minerals with delicate crystals and pyrite, add a silica-gel sachet in the inner box. For international shipments, the customs declaration must describe the item truthfully (“fossil ammonite, Madagascar, Cretaceous”), carry the correct HS code (9705 for collector's pieces of palaeontological interest; 2530 or 2529 for many minerals; check the current schedule) and include any export permit.