Hi everyone, I wanted to share about the brands of gloves I have used. I kind of morphed my post into a couple of topics, but they are pretty much related since gloves are just a part of coin handling.
I almost always wear gloves when I'm in the same room as my coins. When I keep gloves on all of the time, I feel like I won't have an "Oh No" moment, or hopefully mitigate those moments that are caused by touching the "Oh No" parts of a coin by accident. Although I scrub my hands with a scrubber, soap and water, my hands get sweaty pretty quickly. The gloves keep my hand sweat and oils from getting on stuff (cameras, computer, etc) not just my coins. It's just a personal preference that I use gloves all of the time (I'm typing this post with gloves on, I am a little weird
) I seem to sweat a lot from my hands and it freaks me out when I'm around anything made of silver or copper.
I've been using two brands of gloves, pictured below. You can see the difference in quality between the Cordova #1100 C inspection gloves and the Neewer (UPC 9906965) inspection gloves. Both brands are on
ebay and
Amazon I believe. The Cordova Safety Products brand gloves are used for moving stuff around in my work area and handling items that are not coin or photography related. The Neewer brand gloves are used for most coin handling and photography since the Neewer gloves have less lint bunnies out of the bag and they just look more legit when the glove(s) are shown in any coin photos or other photos. The Cordova gloves are around $7 for 12 pairs and the Neewer gloves are around $12.00 for 12 pairs. Both prices include shipping. Don't hold me to that though, as prices and sellers change.
Some of my coins are not worth the use of the Neewer gloves since they run $1.00 per pair. But the cheaper gloves have that extra lint that will hang onto the best or worst of coins. The better gloves have a tighter knit, so less lint to possibly catch on coin rough spots and rim dings.
Nice white gloves will also get you called "Micheal Jackson" or "Jeeves", or "Butluh". Sometimes I'll visit my wife in the other room with the gloves on, just so she can get a laugh. She's hasn't yet asked for butler services, but that's probably coming when she finds out how much I paid for "our" new Canon 5D MK4 "coin" camera
A small diameter rubber band helps to keep the gloves a little tighter so it's easier to pick stuff up. I can pick up coins with gloves on, as long as there is acrylic padding under the coins. Generally though, I don't pick up coins without some kind of thin and safe "pick" object. I do have to take my gloves off sometimes when dealing with the cameras (3 cameras, more about that in a later relevant post), but I seem to be able to use my phone's keypad (and phone camera) without issues most of the time, just have to mash the buttons a little more deliberately (not that much harder though). I have better luck with my phone's keypad (and phone camera) if a rubber band is keeping the glove a bit tighter. I used my phone camera to take the photos in this post, gloves (and rubber band on the right hand) on the entire time.
On the subject of "hard to pick up coins by the edge with gloves on", below is a "re-purposed" 2x2 Mylar/paper coin holder that is cut at one side to reach into PVC, poly or other plastic coin bags/holders. I slide the cut side of the 2x2 holder into the old bag, and then turn the holder 90 degrees to separate the bag from the coin without moving the coin in the bag. The 'holdermajig' does not touch the coin (at least not while the coin is still in the old bag), it's merely a way to reduce or hopefully eliminate the coin's obverse/reverse surface contact with the old bag during removal. It's pretty easy to shimmy the cut side of the 'holdermajig' into a bag that has sealed itself over time. Otherwise I wold have to remove my glove to get the bag opened enough to start the removal of the coin from the old bag.
The re-purposed holder also acts as a pick so the coin can be lifted on edge. The Mylar side of the 'pick' can be wiped clean (dollar store Kleenex), which is important since the cut end of the 'pick' could be going into an older bag that may have PVC residue, dust or other matter that I do not want to carry to the imaging station or the new Mylar holders. I have plenty of paper/Mylar holders, so my pick supply is pretty much endless. The paper/Mylar holders can be bent into a really useful pick with the smallest of contact point. Although the photos don't show it, the pick is very stout and will not bend out of shape when lifting practically any coin. I just tested the pick on a
Morgan dollar and it lifted the coin edge without much surface contact and it didn't bend back one bit. I just need the coins lifted enough to be able to have a good hold by the coin's edges, it does a pretty good job at that.
Just FYI, you see a wood table in these photos, but normally the table is padded with acrylic cloth and topped with velvet fabric, which makes for a much safer work area when handling coins. I'll be breaking some coin rolls open tonight, so the padding and velvet is coming back to the table.
In closing, I'm not all that impressed with the less expensive gloves (I came to that conclusion after writing this post). Sometimes my thumbs don't fit into the gloves due to the hit or miss quality and it really makes them stretch out and become really disposable rather quickly. So I don't think I'll be reordering the less expensive gloves, the Neewer brand of gloves are just worth the extra money to me. I would be interested to learn of others' choices of gloves, and picks for that matter.
I don't think my holdermajig pick is a new idea, it just sort works for me and I don't have any wooden picks on hand that won't catch on my velvet, or worse, the acrylic cloth that is kind of shaggy.
And a final note, take the rubber band(s) off first before taking the glove(s) off. I tried to just slide the gloves off while the rubber bands were still on my gloves at my wrists. I could see a bad ending coming and if you have hairy arms (like me), you know what I mean about rubber bands tangling on hairy arms.
Posted 06/18/2016 6:34 pm
