Should you touch gold coins?
The main way to protect your gold coins or bars is not to handle them unless it's necessary, but sometimes we appreciate you might want or need to. Gold is soft, so to prevent your bullion from being damaged by a hard surface when handling it, put a soft, clean towel or cloth on the surface where you want to place it.
When handling pure silver, we advise to never touch the product directly with your bare hands. As mentioned before, the oils from your hands can speed up the tarnishing process. Touching pure silver with your hands can also leave unwanted fingerprints on your silver bullion products.
More to the point, because gold and silver don't corrode, you could store them in a water-filled fish tank. Rather than storing them in water, though, it's recommended to store gold and silver in dry places like a depository, a safe deposit box, or an at-home safe.
If you need to handle your bullion, wear soft, lint-free cotton gloves or. Wash your hands and use hand sanitizers before touching your bullion. Lay a soft towel or a thick, soft cloth – to ensure a soft landing in case you drop your bullion. Always handle your bullion by edges, between your forefinger and thumb.
Gold coins don't frequently tarnish or corrode when appropriately kept, so they shouldn't require cleaning. Some coin collectors think that breathing on the coin surface is a great way to clean it up and improve the shine. It's a bad idea. You'll be putting excess moisture on the coin from your breath.
Baking soda and vinegar have proven to be one of the most effective ways to clean tarnished coins. Submerge the coins in a shallow bath of vinegar and let them soak for at least an hour. If you don't have vinegar on hand, filtered tap or distilled water can be used as a substitute.
You can take the bar out of the packaging if you choose; however opening the sealed packaging would render the certification void. You will not be able to reseal the bar once the sealed packaging has been opened.
What if you can't explain the source of your gold? The circular issued by CBDT specifies that a married lady is allowed to keep up to 500 grams of gold jewellery; an unmarried lady can hold up to 250 grams and a male member of the family can keep up to 100 grams of gold ornaments and jewellery.
According to government regulations, it is legal for married women to own up to 500 grams of gold, whereas it is illegal for unmarried women to hold more than 250 grams of the yellow metal. However, the CBDT has set a lower limit of 100 grams for each male family member, whether they are married or not.
Physical gold is one of the best forms of long-term wealth protection. It is ideal for your heirs since it will outlast any currency they may use in the future. Physical gold is not subject to the risks that come with paper assets. It can't be hacked or erased.
Can you bend pure gold with your hands?
Pure gold is much too soft to be worn as jewelry on a daily basis, it's very soft for a metal and easy to bend, scratch, or ding. A pure gold, or even 22K, simple band could easily be bent with a strong hand and applied pressure.
The Mint may use plastic tubes and plastic wrappers to ship coins but they are not ideal for storage. They barely provide any protection. They can easily tear and contamination and water can seep through easily.
It is best not to clean rare coins as removing the patina can significantly reduce the value of them. For this reason, most coin hobbyists almost never clean their coins. In fact, 99% of coins do not increase in value after you clean them, but many will be greatly devalued.
Only if the coins have more sentimental value to you and you don't plan on selling them. Generally, it is better to leave your antique metal currency alone than it is to try and erase all the grime and grit off of those coins. Cleaning or polishing rare coins devalues them.
When the coin leaves the mint after just being struck, it has a shine or luster. The original mint luster is gradually destroyed as a coin circulates through commerce. Cleaning a coin will also remove the luster thereby destroying the original surface characteristics.
The typical silver dollar contains around $20 worth of silver. However, some silver coins are worth even more than the value of the silver in the coin. Called collectible or numismatic coins, these are coins collectors will pay extra for due to their rarity or age. Melting them down would be a waste of money.
Despite being incredibly durable, platinum can deform and be shaped very easily without breaking. This makes it very useful for jewellers and other industries, but also means it can be scratched quite easily.
The best way to determine if your coins are silver is to view the edge of the coin. If the coin has a solid silver stripe, then you can feel confident that it's silver. If you can see a copper stripe, then the coin is clad. A more subdued silver stripe with faint traces of copper could mean that the coin is 40% silver.
In the world of collecting, it is considered taboo to touch the face of any coin, also referred to as the obverse (the front side, or "heads" ) and reverse (the rear side, or "tails"), as even touching the gold for a brief moment can actually harm the coin, cause fine lines and devalue its worth.
