lost private key...never had it I am a complete newbie. I transferred money to my coin base paper wallet before printing my private key. Now, I see my btc in wallet but could not retrieve my key by going back on my browser...Are they gone?
If you have no record of the private key stored the funds are lost forever, or more correctly you just can never spend them again. As you never had the private key stored on a hard drive, there's not anything you can do to recover it.