Handling gold coins...

[coltle6920]

Should you wear gloves?

I see all these gold commercials and all of the people are bare handling the coins. Even the children are doing it.

I have a large coin that looks to have a dark film on it. I'm sure it's just gold clad but don't know how the discoloration got there.

 

[Rudi]

Well, gold does not rust, tarnish, or corrode. You see hauls coins brought up from ship wrecks 400 years ago. Looks just like it did the day it sank. The only reason I could think of to wear gloves would be to prevent any further wear on the features of the coin. If it was a valuable collector coin. Just a guess.

 

[Rustyt1953]

After 10 minutes on the web I found that fingerprints, a body's natural oils and moisturizers will corrode gold. That's why cotton gloves are used.

 

[ladder13]

Those “coins” in the commercials are filled with chocolate.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

I prefer not to handle mine with my oily paw.
Pure Gold does tarnish, but lots of it ain’t pure.
Like our US Gold Eagle.
Silver and Copper is added to make it a little harder.
Notice you get your one ounce of Oro, but with the extras the coin weight goes up to 1.0909.

Composition is 91.67% gold, 3% silver, balance copper with a reeded edge. Weight and diameter differs between the one, half, quarter, and tenth ounce sizes. The one ounce coin, $50 face value, is 1.287 inches (32.70 mm) in diameter, contains one gold troy ounce and weighs 1.0909 troy ounces.
And when you buy a lower Carat Gold, the farther below 24 you go the more base metal you get. Hence the more opportunity to tarnish-oxidize.
When you buy at a neighborhood Gold Shop in Bangkok, only the Devil know for sure.
This bracelet has looked like this since 1971 and I paid under $100 an Ounce.

 

[Breakaway500]

I have a few I handle without gloves but most of my numismatics are in sealed holders.With bullion it doesn't matter. Nothing like the feel of real gold coins in your hands.

 

[BKLooney]

I've only got one gold coin and just don't handle it, it's a 1908 no motto $20 double eagle. It just sits on a plastic case I found that fits it really well.

The coin actually appears to be uncirculated, I need to send it off and get it graded & sealed...but I've been saying that for about 30 years now...but I will...someday...

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Gold Sampler.
Canadian Maple up top.
Middle- Aussie Roo, American Eagle, American Buffalo.
Bottom- Aussie Snake.

 

[pmanton]

I guess I'm like Scrooge McDuck. Just the thought of all those Double Eagles filling my greedy hands gives me a thrill.
Unfortunately I've only got one $20 gold piece. :-(

 

[mojave30cal]

Hold by the edges if not wearing gloves.

 

[2152hq]

24k (pure) gold doesn't tarnish. It stays it's same color.

Anything below 24k will be an Alloy, even 22k as it has to have some other metal(s) combined with it to lower the karat/point content of the piece.

The total pure gold content of any piece is it's karat rating over 24.
14k gold is 14/24ths total pure gold content.

The other metals can be a bunch of different metals depending on what final color the metal is to be and the hardness.
When you get down in to the lower k golds, the alloys can be juggled to get the Rose, Green , White and other 'color' and antique shades of color .

These are much harder than pure gold (24k) but for jewlery that is a plus as they don't show wear as easily. Engraved and cast relief detail on them don't wear away as easily.

The fact that these do tarnish is a plus in many instances as the darkened
low releif areas of engraving or carving will show in highlight to the naturaly polished higher releif surfaces of a piece. It can be a stunning difference in appearance from an all bright surface with no contrast.

Gold coins may cointain a certain amt of 'pure gold' but the total weight of the coin may be more than that. So some alloy however small may be added to harden the metal for extra wearability.


I have 24k sheet stock and round wire in different dia that I'd bought at times yrs back for engraving.
It's still as bright and untarnished as the day it arrived.
Some 18k and 14k is tarnished but not that bad.

Silver tarnished quickly, even .99Fine seems to turn black.

A really quick way to get the tarnish off of the Silver & alloy Gold wire and sheet stock is to simply anneal them with a propane flame.
I do that anyway (even the 24k gold)
A pass through the flame and the gold & silver immedietely turns back to bright color as well as return to it's annealed state.
Silver does work harden quite quickly though as do the alloy golds.

I'm not recommending this to de-tarnish collector gold and silver coins!
Just sayin' it works on wire and sheet stock...