first off you should really hold coins wearing some form of white gloves. holding them on the edge can still lead to your fingers touching the other surfaces of the coin. as far as currency you can use the same technique. it's not as critical. dirt and oil from your hand could potentially stain a note but there is less chance of it. you just want to make sure you are very careful while holding the note so you don't do any damage to it.
99 times out of 100 when I receive notes, they are in holders. I'm anal about the uniformity of the holders, so after washing my hands in dish washing soap, I carefully cut the left & right edges with scissors and remove the note between my thumb and forefinger. I smell the note, and then examine the note either outdoors in the sunlight or indoors under a high intensity lamp with a magnifying glass or jewelers loop. I determine a grade, scan the note, and record the denomination, series, district, and serial number, and then place it in a standard holder I get from Russell & Linda at the SellItStore. When I started collecting currency, I thought gloves were necessary, but after attending several major shows, I noticed that was not the practice. I once pulled a note from a holder and one corner did not want to cooperate, and I put a slight handling mark on the note.....so now I cut the sides off knowing I'm going to use a new holder.
I handle the notes with clean hands. And also, after squeezing many notes into the right sized holders I finally decided to use the large size holders for everything. It may look ridiculous on the small notes but why risk damaging them trying to make them look pretty? Once the note is in the holder I tend to leave it alone.
With white cotton gloves or latex. Never bare hands. No matter how clean, skin always has oils which can contaminate paper.
Very carefully with clean hands with thumb and index finger. Someone grabbed one of my raw notes by the edges, thinking that was the appropriate way to hold them like a coin. Oh man, did they get a scolding from me. Don't handle paper by the edges.
i have seen videos for the making of coins and they weren't gloves. i have seen them touch the coins directly with their hands. every collector will tell you not to touch coins with your fingers. so that picture means nothing to me. :thumb: it really boils down to personal preference.
Since I don't collect paper money, I grab them and shove them into my wallet until I decide to spend them.
Clean, bare hands will do for me......remember, US paper currency is a closer relative to what you're wearing than what you're writing on. Besides, almost every note I own was handled by someone else before me.
steve i agree with you that you can handle paper currency with you hands. i just feel to be 100% safe it's better to wear gloves. as i stated before it's personal preference.
Handling high grade paper can be tricky, especially if it,s being handled outside any sort Of protection a holder or gloves even in a holder like PCGS first generation which is flimsy At best, i witnessed at a show a note that was mishandled and creased inside this was a 68PPQ note!!
