PROLONGED contact against SWEATY skin.

Also, fingertips are a whole lot less prone to such reactions. I play bass, the strings of which contain nickel, but never have a finger rash. However, a nickel alloy watch backplate will bring my wrist out in lumps in no time.

Maybe if someone held coins in their sweaty mitts all day, they would get a reaction (in the palms more likely)

If I had a nickel for every...

Oh, wait... never mind.

Only if they spend hours counting them.

@Sas

Most people handle coins only for brief moments, so they don't cause anything even for sensitive people.

Things would be different, If they would be keeping coins on their skin up to several hours per day.

...why not avoid touching the phone by using a Bluetooth earpiece instead.

That way you can look even more stupid than if you had a rash right across your face.

Coins go in the pocket: the wallet is used for storing notes. A container for coins is called a purse (in the British, rather than American English, sense of the word) and are rightfully an object of derision, which is why they are hidden inside handbags (or purses, in the American, rather than British English sense of the word).

Anyway, what about SMS obsessives: surely their clammy texting fingers will also be covered in rashes and suppurating sores?

Doesn't quite work like that.... you need prolonged contact with something, holding a coin for 10 seconds doesn't quite, but a watch or similar where sweat etc gets trapped under it... leads to not a lot of fun here :(

Being allergic to aluminium is a pain with my Macbook Pro too!

30% of the population don't open their wallet, get out some coins and rub them against their ear for minutes at a time.

I'm one of those that can't hold a phone against my ear cos I get a large sticky rash. The plastic-cased phones don't do it, just the metallic ones.

So teenagers with a rash (how would you know?) are a problem, but frying their brains isn't? Mind you, how would you know that, either? :-)

Nowt wrong with the N95