Handling bullion

Note: this thread isn't about the concept or idea about whether or not to purchase bullion, but rather handling it


Back in 8th grade I went out and bought 17 oz of pure canadian 1 oz maple leaf coins, and to this day they are still in the plastic container which they were given to me in (though they are not that good, the coin continuously somehow ends up pushing up against the plastic, one of the holders is ripped half-way across the top because of this). What I'm wondering though is that holding of these coins purely for the value of the materials itself, does it matter if it's in its unsealed plastic container? It has continual exposure to air/oxygen (if it matters). So I'm just curious, if one day I decide to sell this stuff if silver does indeed raise in price, is anyone going to care if there's fingerprints on it? Are there any negative effects on the coin if it were to be put in ones pocket? It's not going to be some one-in a million thing where it'll melt in my hand right?

tl;dr

Silver maple leaf coins were given to me in unsealed plastic container (pics can be provided on request), if I decide to sell later solely for content will anyone care if it has my fingerprints all over it?



Unrelated:

Quick hypothetical, say I had 5 of those 1 oz gold bars, say minted by kitmo or whatever it's called. If I put that in a briefcase and popped on a plane for an international flight, will customs be bitchy or ask questions about it in security? Or have they seen much stranger things that people have tried to get through carry-on?



P.S. - Forgot to mention (Sorry!) I'm in Canada, British Columbia. Here we don't pay GST/PST/HST on .999+ precious metals (except palladium)

And yeah, I do put em in a safe

 

I would just buy a small safe and just keep them in there and put it under my bed or something, and abut the gold. Yes customs would ask questions because they would wonder if you have paid tax on the gold, and if you have not then you would get arrested.

 

Forgot to mention (Sorry!) I'm in Canada, British Columbia. Here we don't pay GST/PST/HST/("VAT" doesn't even exist here) on .999+ precious metals (except palladium)

And yeah, I do put em in a safe . But I'm just wondering if I'll get screwed over on the basic value of the silver content (1 oz) if I took them out of the plastic for whatever reason, like say the plastic was destroyed and I went down to the store to get another, and I put my coin in my pocket for instance, and I have a habit of keeping my hands in my pocket

 

Customs will be a bitch about gold bars going through because it is suspicious looking. Gold is used in a lot of illegal transactions because gold bars are pretty much impossible to trace.

Coins for metal value will be worth whatever the metal weight is, but coins for collector value will depend on grade and quality so you will have to protect them if you want them to retain collector value.

 

I'm going solely for metal value, so if I decide to sell them unprotected, no one will care if there's a few fingerprints on them as long as it can clearly be identified that it's authentic?

For the gold bars/coins though, how would it be best to get it through? Certificate of authenticity? Original purchase receipts? I buy my bullion through a coin dealership.

 

You can try and bring them on and have that info with you because that would certainly help, but having a group of gold bars casually tucked into your carry on is very suspicious.

 

Alright, well thanks for your responses to my questions. The reasons I ask about the customs thing is that I'm planning on moving to another country in a few years, and if I do I'd want my stuff with me where I can see them, rather than kept in a different country than me, or put into the luggage where it could end up going "missing" during the baggage loading, or seized by customs out of suspicion, that sort of thing.

 

You could easily overnight it, or what would be even better is going to your local bank and asking them for their opinion. They deal with that kind of stuff all the time.

 

If you have all the papers for them and proof you own the bullion then it would be fine.