When I buy silver it is only for the silver and buy bars with low preium. So my question is can I handle my silver without staining,or tarnish,or leave finger prints. Everything I have purchased is in clear(soft) plastic containers and do not know if I can just take one out and sit in my chair and admire it.
Theres a whole lot of posts on this subject having been raised before.Just use the search feature using tarnish or toning as a keyword. It depends on your preference. Some love tarnishing,others dont I personally like to handle bars,although i still keep some in packaging Heres a link to get you started http://forums.silverstackers.com/topic-35630-what-s-this-stuff-on-my-silver.html
Finchy, Thanks for the info on cleaning but my question is can I handel them without messing them up??
If you want to fondle your bars after eating a big Mac or KFC then you will get them all fingermarked and greasy. If that happens place them in a plastic container of hot water with washing up liquid and clean them like a baby's bottom using a soft sponge. Rinse and pat dry with paper towels but don't add talcum powder. If you leave your unprotected bars in a smoke filled environment, in time they may tarnish and turn black. This is easily rectified using the bicarb, boiling water and Al. foil bath.
It probably depends on the type of the bar. Minted bars with a mirror-like finish will most likely never be the same as before after even touching them once. Cleaning them without causing scratches is a headache. Poured bars may be more robust in that sense. I admit it: I'm carrying a small, poured bar in my pocket for quite a while now, and it basically looks like a new one, but YMMV.
if you have low premium bars then handle them as much as you like - stain them - who cares you'll get the same price from a dealer whether they are shiny or dirty
I handle them like i handle my iphone, unless they came to me in pristine condition and in a protective case.
Get your hands on a Perth Mint 10oz bar - you know, the ugly-as-sin-yet-beautiful-to-hold sort. And play around with it as much as you want. Honestly, I think unless you've actually held some "raw" metal in your hands, and stopped and considered what it represents, especially in today's fiat world, you don't really have an appreciation for what you're stacking. Think... Romans used to make coins out of that same metal, and paid their workers one silver denarius a day. True money. Nothing like it.
Thank All, I will treat my bullion with the same respect that my wife demands--that should be good enough-LOL
Silver tarnishes due to exposure to sulphur, mainly. You will most definitely have sulphur compounds in your skin oils etc, so yes, handling them will most likely speed up the process of tarnishing, not to mention attract plain old dirt more easily etc. But silver is silver so provided you don't care about the look of tarnish, nothing lost.
I used to carry a Aus 1966 50 cent around in my pocket. First piece of silver I ever owned & a kinda walk & talk, show & tell, convert the humble sheeple people artifact. I'm so smart I forgot to take it out of my pocket one Friday arvo & it went through the wash & jammed & jiggered the agitator. Cost me $150 to fix my mates washer. Learned my lesson there, don't fondle my silver coins anymore.
Yea I HAD a maple leaf I would handle, went through the wash a few times, each time I was in shock at the state of it, so many dings and scratches and even gouges and chips, it never broke the machine though. I lost it somewhere, could be in the house or the car or IDK. Since then I have only played with pre decimal and made sure to put it all back before I do anything else, I don't want to lose any MORE silver. @OP You can handle your silver, poured bars/pre decimal coinage without any real worries, when you start taking things out of capsules and mint packaging is when you have to start worrying
Ive got a kook I like to handle, fondle etc. i keep it in my work/man bag. Its all dinged up and starting to tarnish. The more beat up it gets the better in my book. I never plan on selling it and it was the first silver i ever bought. Ive already had some great times with this coin and i expect many more. Weve even had a run in with airport security that was my favourite memory we share. They couldnt figure out what it was on xray. Rather than ask they ran it through close to a dozzen times. I was traveling with the swim team i coach (13-18 year olds). I played up to the crowd, tried to get it out of my bag and they almost tackled me. Kids thought it was a hoot. Airport goons ended up taking a tiny jewlers screwdriver off me to justify how worked up they got despite looking totally incompetent taking a dozzen scans. Afterwise the kids wanted to know all about it. I let them hold and check out the coin. They were blown away by the size and weight. Especially since they changed our kiwi coins to plated steel and out 50c is now similar to you 10c the rest smaller from there down. Gave me a chance to get a little sales pitch in, now we settle disputes etc with a coin toss with my dinged up old kook. I dont think theres any better alternate than handeling real silver to get people interested snd listening if you want to bang on and enlighten them.
^ up till recently i used to carry around 1oz scottsdale bar in my pocket.It went everywhere with me beach,work etc Anywho i decided to get kfc at the food court one day .. Dam thing must of slipped out & didnt hear it ping in the hustle & bustle of the shopping centre. I was pretty annoyed at first,but then realised someone else would eventually pick it up and their curiosity of this 1oz silver bar could potentially lead them to start stacking - dunno why,but that made the loss somewhat easier to deal with. If i found 1oz of silver at the shops id never part with it,no matter the price
good way of looking at it finchy If i found one in the shop and didnt know what silver bullion was i would think it was a game token of some kind.
Based upon our rejuvenated memories I've decided to rescue the ole 50c 80% & start the "show & tell" ridicule engine up again.
