What type of gloves do you use to handle raw coins?

TheGoonies1985

Are 100% cotton OK?

TheGoonies1985

I imagine many do not use any at all.

Mr_Spud

A lot of people don’t use gloves, they carefully hold coins by their edges. My hands shake too much for that, so I use black nitrile gloves, but many also use white cotton gloves. I use these

TurtleCat

I don’t really use any unless I’m putting them into an album. Then I will use some clean cotton gloves. It’s equally important to have a soft area below to catch an accidental drop and to breathe/talk as little as possible on it.

WAYNEAS

I use cotton gloves.
Wayne

AUandAG

Album insertion is the only time I wear gloves. I do wash my hands before handling coins, though.
bob
vegas baby!

PerryHall

I wash my hands thoroughly with hot water and Dawn dishwashing detergent to clean and degrease my hands and then I dry my hands thoroughly.
Actually, I rarely ever handle raw rare coins since virtually all the coins I buy are slabbed.

ctf_error_coins

No gloves.

Wash hand and rinse in 91% alcohol and handle the coins by the edges only.

Gloves lead to dropped coins.

OAKSTAR

@PerryHall said:
I wash my hands thoroughly with hot water and Dawn dishwashing detergent to clean and degrease my hands and then I dry my hands thoroughly.
Actually, I rarely ever handle raw rare coins since virtually all the coins I buy are slabbed.

I lick my fingers after handling my coins. I love the taste to silver!

Lazybones

I use gloves made of emery cloth. Can't take the chance of one of those little buggers slipping out of my fingers!

jdmern

No gloves at all

jayPem

First base on my right, catchers on the left 👈

Namvet69

Yup, white cotton gloves. No latents Is a good thing.

OAKSTAR

The cotton gloves I've tried are real slippery! No gloves at all except when inserting coins into my albums like @AUandAG said.

JRocco

I never use gloves when handling raw coins. Just handle them carefully.
And if a coin is well circulated and my hands are clean I have no worries at
all touching it anywhere.

Tom147

Having worked EMS for 27 years, gloves are readily available. Only time I use them is removing coins from proof & mint sets to place in my Dansco albums. Nitrile 3.5mm

airplanenut

Last time I used gloves was 6 (?) years ago in the Smithsonian vault since they required it, as is their right. I used nitrile gloves. Otherwise, bare hands.

Omegaraptor

jacrispies

I personally never use gloves. If I absolutely needed to (like raw handling a high grade classic proof), I like powderless latex/nitrile gloves. Good grip although they make your hands sweaty when removed.

ChrisH821

I don't use gloves. If I'm going to be handling a BU or Proof coin I will make sure to wash my hands first and completely dry.

gumby1234

Only when putting into an album. I dont want a huge thumbprint on every coin.

Morgan13

This is what happens when someone handles a coin who doesn't wear gloves and has no idea how to handle a coin. In this case I really like the effect. I am sure many won't. I wouldnt go down chasing more I just like the way this coin looks!
Besides this thread needs a coin.

PerryHall

A couple of times when negotiating the price of a raw con at my local coin shop, I wished I was wearing boxing gloves.

Onastone

I find cotton gloves leave tiny fibers...just can't be helped. Why not just handle coins by their sides? Does that leave unseen oily residue that could spread to obverse/reverse? I don't know why anyone would touch the face of a coin!!!

OAKSTAR

@Morgan13 said:
This is what happens when someone handles a coin who doesn't wear gloves and has no idea how to handle a coin. In this case I really like the effect. I am sure many won't. I wouldnt go down chasing more I just like the way this coin looks!
Besides this thread needs a coin.

Welcome to the club. Maybe it's an NGC thing!

Sapyx

As noted by others above, gloves tend to make you more accident-prone in terms of dropping the coin, I simply trust myself better with bare fingers than with gloves. An accidental fingerprint can be removed with acetone (if it's done straight away and not left to develop as in the above examples), but a dent from dropping it onto the floor cannot be un-dented. Besides, most of my coins are not in the state that require absolute zero skin contact. I let other people buy the expensive, delicate high-MS and proof coins.

It has been many decades now since gloves were fashion accessories; the recent COVID pandemic has not really changed this as much as might have been expected. This means that nobody is used to wearing gloves these days. Unless you are employed in a profession where you've gotten used to handling small metal objects while wearing gloves for prolonged periods (like a surgeon or a restaurant kitchenhand), I'd recommend not using gloves.

If gloves are deemed necessary for handling a specific delicate coin, then clean cotton gloves are OK; disposable (non-powdered) nitrile gloves are also OK and do tend to offer more grip. Nitrile rubber does contain some sulfur, but it's tightly bound in the rubber matrix so as long as contact with the coins is kept to a minimum (and the gloves aren't sealed up in an airtight box with the coins), they should be fine. If you're using gloves to fish coins out of an acetone or isopropanol bath as per one of your recent posts, you do not want to be using cotton gloves there; the acetone will go straight through the cotton, soak the oils out of your fingers, and flow straight back out into the solution again, taking your fingerprint oil with it. Use nitrile gloves for this purpose.

I remember going on a coin club tour of a local university's ancient history department coin collection here in Australia. They made everybody put on cotton gloves before allowing us to handle the coins. They also gave out plenty of cotton towels, to catch the inevitable drops. I also remember thinking that these coins are 2000 years old and survived being buried underground for centuries, being dug up, cleaned and shipped to the far side of the world. They didn't really need the extra protection.

retirednow

I wonder which noted collector figure prints these may have belong to?

J-1691 Copper

hfjacinto

I always use cotton gloves when I hold my coins.

Considering how many coins I see with fingerprints, I think a lot of you that handle your coins ungloved should probably start.

A coin I purchased years ago with no fingerprint when I got it.

TwoSides2aCoin

I almost used boxing gloves, with one customer.

OAKSTAR

@hfjacinto said:
I always use cotton gloves when I hold my coins.

Considering how many coins I see with fingerprints, I think a lot of you that handle your coins ungloved should probably start.

A coin I purchased years ago with no fingerprint when I got it.

Fingerprints on slabbed coins. I have also purchased slabbed coins where fingerprints have magically appeared years later.

When I submit coins, I always give them acetone baths first. I'm assuming/hoping it kills/prevents finger oil and prints from appearing years down the road.

Jacques_Loungecoque

I don’t wear any gloves, ever. You gotta keep that tactile sensation at its peak. As long as you’re holding by the edge you’re good. If I want to insert into an album I just carefully align and place it over the slot, then put a piece a copy paper over the coin and push down.

I’ve found cotton gloves can leave fibers. Just saying…..

Stingray63

Depends on the coin but I typically use cotton gloves. Definitely every time if it's a coin I'm definitely having graded or BU silver bullion coin I'm putting in a capsule.

Sapyx

If wondering whether you need to wear gloves to handle coins, consider this:

What kind of gloves does PCGS use when they handle coins sent to them for grading?

Answer: none, usually. According to this fact page, PCGS graders might wear gloves for "high-grade vintage copper coins", but for everything else, no they don't. For the reason I mentioned earlier: coins are safer in ungloved hands. In the unlikely event that they accidentally slam a fingerprint onto a coin, they can acetone-rinse the oils off straight away before a print develops, no harm no foul. If they drop a coin badly enough to dent or scratch it, that damage is irreversible and they're up for reparations.

PerryHall

@Sapyx said:
If they drop a coin badly enough to dent or scratch it, that damage is irreversible and they're up for reparations.

That's why you should handle raw coins over a padded surface and the floor should be carpeted.

Bullsitter

George uses these.
.

mr1931S

I don't care for gloves to handle coin. I wash my hands before and after handling raw coins though.

RiveraFamilyCollect

The Black Nitrile powder free gloves are the way to go. I hear cotton can scratch the coins.

cladking

It depends on exactly what I'm doing.

I normally use one of those one cent gloves on my left hand but sometimes I wear it on my right. It's not unusual to don a second one or even use none at all.

I also will use a nitrile glove on my left hand rarely.

TOATOA

I had a quick look and I found nitrile gloves that specifically don't contain sulfur :

Reflexx care N350:
https://www.reflexx.com/en/products...x-care-n350/

Unigloves Advanced Zero GM0051:
https://uk.unigloves.com/products/z...3wxbVWm8ikrw

I guess such gloves should be considered "definitely safe" for ancient coin handling, right?

I also noticed that most nitrile gloves are chlorinated, on the outside and/or inside. Maybe that's another thing we don't want, right? After some searching it became clear that MOST nitrile gloves are chlorinated! Which to me is not so nice to see touching our coins. So i guess you really should look for gloves that are explicitly only inner-chlorinated. So let's get back at the total list of requirements of nitrile gloves for handling coins:

• powder free
• latex free
• sulfur free
• only inner-chlorinated (no outside chlorination)

Never thought i'd be a nitrile glove expert.

WaterSport

Gloves on always when handling proofs - and a face mask.

WS

Married2Coins

The invisible ones. Just hold them by the edge as 95+ percent of collectors through the ages have done.

BAJJERFAN

@Married2Coins said:
The invisible ones. Just hold them by the edge as 95+ percent of collectors through the ages have done.

Do the same with whatever gloves you use. Why would you ever have a need to touch the coin surfaces except to place into an album?

Connecticoin

Bare hands, thoroughly washed. Last time I used cotton gloves I dropped a 1956 Type 1 proof Franklin. Lesson learned.

zer0man

Just the ones that came with my birthday suit.

Mr Lindy

Typically, I only handle raw BU after I just showered and am air dried to a low humidity.

I have a roof top deck I go all natural on. Deck people wondered why I wanted solid 42" stucco privacy walls instead of glass.

I like the idea of deploying nitriles as I overbought during the cooties era.
They have micro texture finger tips. Micro texture is cool !

PerryHall

@Connecticoin said:
Bare hands, thoroughly washed. Last time I used cotton gloves I dropped a 1956 Type 1 proof Franklin. Lesson learned.

It's always prudent to handle rare raw coins over a padded surface whether using cotton gloves or your well washed clean hands so if you drop it, it won't be damaged..

yspsales

One glove and one bare hand.

Padded surface