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Recommendations for Handling Raw Coins
MidLifeCrisis
Posts: 10,531 ✭✭✭✭✭
I've collected slabbed coins almost exclusively for the past 20+ years. Lately I've been going to antique stores with my in-laws and local coin shops in small towns, and occasionally I've been buying raw coins that I find. They usually come in the 2x2 stapled holders but I may want to submit some for grading and certification. I know to handle the coins by the edges. Are there other recommendations you can give me? Especially for handling more expensive raw coins (say $100 and up)? Type of gloves to wear or avoid...type of matt or pad to buy to hold the coins over...anything else you can think of. Thanks.
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Always wash your hands after handling each coin to avoid cross contamination.
I like to use nitrile gloves like these, they work great and never dropped a coin holding with these, cotton gloves are slippery and easy to drop a coin if you go that route
Mr_Spud
Before I handle a raw coin I wash my hands like a surgeon would...no coin doctoring here!
bob
AFAIK none of the professional TPGS graders wear gloves while handling valuable coins. I doubt that very many dealers or collectors do either but it looks good in the old ads.
I don’t handle many raw coins, at all. But is there really a need to be so careful as to glove up?
Now I can see being really careful with a proof coin but these old circulated coins have been handled countless times throughout the years. Are we really going to cause additional wear, especially when handling the coin by the edge.
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I believe it was @CaptHenway that was holding a gold slug in his hand a few months ago, causing no harm. Please forgive if it was someone else.
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I just think using common sense and being careful not to drop the coin and hold on the edges, with clean hands is being careful enough. Am I wrong?
I don't wear gloves. However, I do wear gloves when running a whatnot so I don't accidentally print the coin.
And while I'm pretty cavalier, I do sometimes wince a bit when someone has the coin in their palm or has fingers that are contacting the faces. I assume you've seen fingerprints on coins before. They often start out invisible.
Yeah, I would definitely not hold the surface of the coin with fingers.
Please explain “when running a whatnot.” I’m not familiar with that term.
Wash hands, wear gloves and handle the coin by the edges (don't drop the darned thing), fwiw
I wash my hands with Dawn detergent to remove any skin oils from my hands and then carefully hold the coin by the edges over a soft surface such as a folded hand towel. Be especially careful when removing a coin from a stapled holder. A staple scratch will ruin a coin and destroy much of its value. I pierce the edge of the window with a pointed toothpick and then bend the holder slightly over a soft surface to tear the window and let the coin drop out thus avoiding any contact with any staple. If you store your coins in the cardboard 2"X2" staple holders, be sure to clean the cardboard dust from the inside windows with compressed air or just wipe it with a clean cotton cloth to avoid the cardboard dust from spotting your coins especially copper proofs. Also, be sure to carefully flatten the staples with a pair of pliers.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
Whatnot.com
Mind your mouth. Also try to be aware of sneezing and coughing when handling higher grade coins raw.
Generally I like them in 2x2 non pvc flips stored in Whitman storage boxes. Items $10 and over inventoried in excel / items less than $10 cost - bulk inventory.
I agree with everything @PerryHall said.
A few other tips:
Avoid this.
For all those with iPhones. Turn off your phones and look at the screens.... That's what's on raw coins. Have you ever coin roll searched without gloves? Look at your hands... That's what's on raw coins.
So don't lick your fingers after handling raw coins!! 🤣
😂
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
Pocket lint and wrap stock spread pareidolia to the coin too. Look away from a raw coin for a while and you’ll be okay.
If I eat a cookie and then tpouch the surface of a proof gold $20 it will show a print. Can that print become "fixed" so it can never come off? Or is it just silver and copper where a print is permanent?
Unknown, please do that experiment and get us some results, and make sure that you have an adequate sample size of coins and cookies.
And the easiest way to avoid that is to take the corner of a box cutter to the little bit of space at the edge of the mylar where it meets the cardboard and pierce the mylar. Then bend the holder there and they mylar should rip and the coin comes out without the staples being opened up.
Wish Icould. I don't own any Proof gold coins.
That's what I said except poking a hole in the edge of the mylar window with a sharp toothpick is safer. The window material is thin and tears easily when it's been pierced and you bend the cardboard holder.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
This. Or I will use a pen or pencil tip. Using a box cutter is as dangerous or more so than the staples themselves.
Don't do this either.
Or this..
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
I learned the trick at the 2003 Baltimore ANA, and in just about 21 years have hurt myself 0 times, so I think it's a risk I can take.
Give the coins a good soak in 100% acetone. I recently put about 30 raw coins in acetone for a little while and set the dish out on an outdoors porch to evaporate when I was done with it. When I came back later, I found just a little bit of residue in my 6'' by 6'' glass dish. Many collectors have no idea how absolutely disgusting most coins are (slabbed or not).
If you have something on your fingers that is strong enough to etch into gold, then you're going to need some new fingers.