First Visit to a Coin Shop. Did I buy a cleaned coin?

I have seen many coins with fingerprint tarnish on the 3rd edge & slightly overlapping to the other sides. Gloves prevent that and also prevent unintended touches. I'm not suggesting you need to wear gloves for every coin, but they are another good, inexpensive tool to have at your disposal when the situation warrants.

 

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I would never wear them. You lose dexterity and can drop the coin. It can slip from your fingers and get a rub across the face. There are many factors that would lead one to not using them.

What needs to be done is learn the proper etiquette first.
Tpg's acknowledge that a coin has to be held, and do not ding the grade for tarnish on the third sides.

 

Ooor one could just avoid collecting coins where touching it will decrease the value by hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Museums and graders don’t use gloves with their coins because gloves make the hands more susceptible to dropping the coin.

 

NGC lists this coin as a G4/$9.00. It is a solid G4 because no headband letters of LIBERTY are evident. In VG8, some of the letters still show. Straight out of the Red Book.

If it was bought for $10, making allowance for cleaning...$6.00 actual worth. However, someone looking for one would probably spring for the extra...so actually a good buy, imo...Spark

 

If it wasn't cleaned, $10 is a fair price.
And, it probably wasn't recently cleaned. That coin was probably cleaned
50 years ago.
Looking at it from the sellers side, he's not getting rich selling a $10 coin.
He probably has large customers who buy thousand dollar coins.
One time I went into my old LCS and a Native American artisan was buying a TON of Morgans and Peace dollars, either to use the coins in jewelry, or just for the silver,
but this was a large transaction for thousands of dollars. Of course these types of customers were his bread and butter, but I was treated fairly there
and I bought and sold a number of things. I was sad when he closed up. (There are other shops here but I don't go.) Long before EBay was even big I asked him about large bills.
He was saying how all the large bills ($500 and $1000) were on EBay and I guess the online competition was too much for his overhead.

 

I agree and that is why I wear surgical gloves. They are good enough for doctors holding tools of their trade and they have no properties that will contaminate the coin, they do however, make your hands sweat when worn for a long time. They are inexpensive enough and usually come a 100 to a box for under $5.00.

 

Once the fingerprints are visible, they are etched into the metal and a dip would be the resort. But if after handling the coin and you wish to be sure you didn't leave any, you can rinse with water, drip it off, immerse in acetone for a very short time ( 10-15 sec.) and then use latex and not nitrile gloves to remove and let air dry. The water removes the water solubles from your hand that contains salts and the acetone lipid solubles from glands. The acetone also removes the thin film of water as it evaporates. IMO Jim

 

Real surgical gloves are packaged individually, sterilized , and then sealed. They usually cost about 80cents to a dollar depending on quantity. I use the non sterilized nitrile gloves from costco all the time to keep my hands from oil and stains, but when I am at a medical facility for something invasive, they better be sterile surgical gloves I see on the tray

 

One of the first considerations for a new coin collector is identifying ‘problem coins’. These are coins which have a reduced value as a result of cleaning as is the case for the subject coin, but also excessive scratches, rim digs, corrosion, etc..
Coins with essentially no problem surfaces or properly conserved (not cleaned) surfaces actually command a premium to listed technical grade values. Early half cents and large cents (pre 1858) are prime examples of this.
Coin collecting is a constant learning experience for all of us.

 

Remember the cent has no reeding so the edge will get those unsightly fingerprints just as east as the Obverse and Reverse. Cents and any coin or medal that doesn’t have reeding are prone to 3rd side fingerprints. Just wear the darn gloves when handling cents and such, I do when handling BU coins AU coins and even any cent that are brown. Just looky there that’s my pile of gloves. I recommend buying inspection gloves from eBay there’re much cheaper. 12 pairs $8.95.

 

Gloves are put into the category of to each his own.

Their is no excuse for a false reality either. Touching the obv. Or rev. Is forbiden also. Palm of the hand is another no, no. Although a cupped palm is sometimes Ok.

My point is folks have been handling coins without gloves since the beginning of time. You'd think that we would have perfected it by now.

 

to me yes it has been cleaned

 

What you should have done (do it the 2nd time you go to that dealer) is strike up a conversation about collecting indian head pennies. First, however, go online to one of the respected coin communities and read all about the history of the indian head pennies. The dealer may welcome your rudimentary knowledge and start talking about the history of indian head pennies. May even give you some bargain prices.