How to handle a gold or silver?

I'm not, but I was required to take MANY chem classes. PURE gold is as described by Ides. However as BadThad mentions, impurities MIGHT react. And yes oils can be removed, however for modern proof or mint gold coins pulled out of their plastic and touched by oils and then wiped clean.......I believe you will see micro abrasions from cleaning and it would knock the coin down a grade on Cameo or gem Proof etc.

I have that Double Eagle I de-slabbed and at AU55 it is very touchable with little to no affect on value. But it is gold, so I don't go tossing it about.

However for anything out of plastic, if its a gold coin, touch the damn thing. Life is short.

 

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Press pictures of art handling always show white gloves. It's a cliche that signals 'this is valuable and we're being reverential'. Reality is that art handlers rarely use gloves either. It's downright dangerous to handle manuscripts with gloves, because there's more risk of tearing pages.

 

Unless I just had fried greasy food I usually don't think twice about handling my coins. Part of the reason why ancients drew my attention, was the fact that I can touch them without worrying about de-valuing them.

 

Back on topic....as for museum displays (or even collector displays) the coins touching each other does little damage if any at all. Microscopically, sure, there will be something. But honestly no big deal. As for the Youtube video, yea, he's just wearing a glove to show everyone how it is a 'museum' piece and handling it accordingly. But he invalidates that concept by dropping it on the table. Probably didnt do any damage, but it could easily happen as gold is very soft. Its a dumb idea. And dumb for any ancient coin no matter the metal. Silver and base metals can be crystallized and dropping it can shatter or break it. Not a good idea indeed. Anyone who has ever heard of the 'drop test' should NOT use it!

 

I read that article and laughed out loud when I read "Fingerprints are like a cancer to a coin". I am very glad I do not collect moderns. There is nothing like holding a 2000 year old coin and thinking about where it has been and who might have handled it.

 

Like many who have visited a coin show, I've struck up conversations with dealers with decades of experience, who have let me hold, with my bare unwashed hands, gold coins (ancients) worth many thousands of dollars. After admiring them they were not washed but put right back in the display.
I have done the same with hundreds and hundreds of silvers and bronzes. Unless they have vats of acetone to dip them in after the show, I don't think they are overly concerned about finger oil.

 

It is not the oils ( sebaceous secretions) that one worries about in handling coins , it is the sweat ( sudoriferous secretions) that are always being produced , even in very cold temperatures. The dissolved salts ( Na, Cl,K, etc) in sweat , along with a little lactic acid at times can give a pH of approx/ 4.5-7, slightly acidic.

The oil from the sebaceous glands are usually longer string organic molecules that have to be broken down by microorganisms on our skin to more active acids. If your skin smells or tastes "gamey" , maybe one shouldn't handle coins. The oils from handling do not produce fingerprint images on coins, the images follow the patterns of the sweat glands.

 

@desertgem I gave a like, but I'll be honest. I have no idea what all the chemistry means. Except, I think, that if your skin smells, don't handle coins.

 

You missed the obvious. They know how to handle coins i.e. holding them by the edges. I haven't heard of someone claiming they sent in a BU coin and it came back with fingerprints all over it.