How to Handle Gold Coins

Collecting gold coins or investing in them involves unavoidably touching them and you should be prepared and know how to handle gold coins. Gold coins as any other coins should be handled with care. The best way is to wear gloves – it can be any kind of cotton soft surface gloves, but you can also find on the market some specialized gloves for handling coins (click here to view some listings).

If the question of how to handle gold coins arouses and you don't have gloves, you still can hold a coin without damaging it, but do it holding on the edge preferably with two fingers. Try not to touch the surface of the coin. Human fingers will leave greasy marks on the surface, which may be not visible at first, but later they can develop into quite nasty stains. The same goes for placing your coin on your palm. You may want to read also about how to clean gold coins here.

Keep also in mind that gold is very soft metal and is very easy to scratch, so if you accidentally rub the surface of a proof gold coin (a coin with a special mirror-like finish minted for collectors and usually sold in special cases or in sets) with a piece of rough cloth, there is chance that you scratch it, leaving at first not visible marks, which may develop into smears and become visible later.

Another good advise on how to handle gold coins is related to their storage and you can read about how to store gold coins here, but as a concept, keep in mind that if a gold coin comes in some kind of casing or protective sleeve, it will be better just to leave it in there and don't take it out. If you want to show it to your friends, still keep in this protective casing as it much harder to control other people and people not involved in collecting coins are usually less considerate about safety rules of how to handle gold coins.

Advices above on how to handle gold coins can and should be applied by serious coin collectors for all coins, regardless whether they're made of precious materials or just bronze, copper, or nickel, especially older ones.

You can see current listings for Gold Coins here.