How does a fingerprint end up on the reverse of a penny packaged at the Denver mint ?

Edchildress

I purchased a uncirculated 1974 mint set and was looking at the coins and found a thumbprint/fingerprint of some sort on the reverse of the 1974 D penny the coin is still in the original ( I assume ) packaging is that common ?

JBK

Mint worker touched it?

Edchildress

Okay touched it
But with what ?
Ink ?

Edchildress

Edchildress

Maybe dried blood ?

atom

I'm sure all mint employees are fingerprinted when hired. Should be easy to match against the fingerprint database to see who the culprit is. Then you are one step closer to getting the true answer.

Edchildress

Thank you for your input
Just wanted to know why the mint would allow something like that out the door

JBK

Either grease on their finger, or very aggressive contaminants that turned the fingerprint black.

It is possible that it did not look like that when new.

Oldhoopster

It didn't look like that when it left the mint. In fact, it may not have been visible. Over time, the oils from the fingerprint darkened as they slowly reacted with the copper. Now it has permanently stained and etched the coin

Edchildress

So does this lessen the worth of the mint set ?

Namvet69

I would venture to say yes. Peace Roy

WAYNEAS

@Edchildress said:
So does this lessen the worth of the mint set ?

Would have to go with a decrease in the mint sets value.
Fingerprints are a hard sell.
Wayne

JWP

Never underestimate the incompetence of a lazy government employee ( i was going to say worker, but worker and government are impossible to use back to back).