Well I have both types, the long skinny ones and the ones that are rounder and look like mushrooms. I was told by a dealer the aztecs used arsenic to refine the copper, but presence of it remains. He warned me to always use protection when handling.
Here's my coins relegated to "touch" therapy. Nothing like the feel of a big old Kennedy half!---John
I love feeling my coins when I do (rarely). I only feel them when moving them from a container or photographing them. I feel some kind of magic when I hold a raw coin not in its holder. Most of the time, I am too scared to touch them though.
Well low grade coins I wouldn't be too concerned, but the high grade stuff I'm not too sure. As for the lead coins, I've heard that they are highly toxic. There are figurines that have warnings on them about touching them.
I do enjoy holding my raw coins (Properly of course). I enjoy the personal connection to their history and the history they represent. I'm not sure but I think you will find more "feelers" among collectors of Classics than among collectors of Moderns. Possibly because Moderns have not history to connect with. (Same reason why I am not as interested in MS Classics. They have no history to connect with either.) I sometimes think that the ANA is going to have to change their slogan for "coin collecting, history in your hands" to "Coin Collecting, history locked up over there in the safe."
When I was really young, my Grandfather had a dish on his dresser filled with old silver coins. I used to pull the drawers out of the dresser to make a "stairs" so I could climb on top of his dresser and play with the coins. Fast foward to 2005 when silver "shot up" to $7/Oz...everyone was selling silver and few were buying (at that outrageous price!!). I was sucking up all the silver I could find. You could find sterling for less than melt! In my frenzy, I bought a thing that turned out to be some sort of a crumb catcher. Really rich people with Maids and Butlers would have dinner parties with all their sterling. One of the "staff" would walk around the table and sweep up crumbs off the tablecloth from around the messier diners. They would sweep them into this silver thing with a lid and a handle. Well, anyway, I bought one...just for the silver. When I got it, it looked pretty nice. Remembering back to my Grandfather's dresser, I decided to get a bunch of circulated silver coins and dump it in there so I could run my hands through them like I did when I was young...should the mood strike me. I find the mood strikes me about 2-3 times a month.
No need for a condom Swish? I'm sorry. It's late, and I'm seriously (or have I already?) about to make a fool of myself (LOL). I do believe it's past my bed time.......
It's all in what the coin is. I bet most modern collectors don't touch theirs and Proof collectors too. But Ancient collectors or old type guy's have little problem touching if done right.
Right now, the only two I "feel" are my Nickel and IHC, which travel w/ me wherever I go. I feel lucky when I have them, kinda odd.
agreed, icerain...I have friends that would probably shower with their coins, if they had the chance. Personally, I like to keep my distance
Shower? I'd eat them... I'm not that goofy, but I do like holding/touching/showing off my little collection. Just makes you feel that much closer to the history, and the thought of who may have held the coin prior to you! Thats why I love my 1882 IHC so much, as it is from the year Jesse James was killed, and he was killed on my birth day. So, it is a really personal coin... maybe I am that goofy.
I have a small coin counter in an antique mall and every customer who is not a serious collector is a feeler – even through the mylar 2x2’s. It drives me crazies !@#$%^&*. So, I hand them the coin, showing them the correct way to hold it, by the edges, even in the mylar 2x2. If that doesn’t work, I slap’em. Most of my personal collection never gets touched, although I do have a few that are reserved as pocket pieces, just for feeling.
Plus, it makes it ever so easier to pick up chicks! (if you're not married) "Want to be the Liberty of my Nickel?"