Home U.S. Coin Forum

Fingerprints!! Very important POLL inside!!

Was just reading the thread about raw coins and smoeone mentioned slabs protecting coins from fingerprints.

Personally, I tend not to mind a fingerprint on a coin. Maybe if I owned a lot of 19th century proof coinage in ultra high grades I'd feel differently, but I just collect goofy coins that strike my fancy.

In a collection that features many errors, uniquely toned type coins, hobo nickels and other oddball selections it's easy to see why fingerprints wouldn't be all that distracting to me. However, for the average collector, maybe of mid-grade mint-state morgans, perhaps a fingerprint is a horrible besmirching of a numismatic near-gem. And, of course, the high end collector of white coins would probably find fingerprints most toubling.

What say you, fingerprints, proof that a coin lived a good and interesting life, or proof that smoeone actually touched a coin without putting on little white cotton gloves first........

Comments

  • krankykranky Posts: 8,709 ✭✭✭
    If I pick up a coin and my first thought is "Whoa, fingerprint!" then it's not a coin I'm going to like. Too distracting. I would agree it's not that big of a deal on a great error.

    New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.

  • dragondragon Posts: 4,548 ✭✭
    <<< Was just reading the thread about raw coins and smoeone mentioned slabs protecting coins from fingerprints. >>>


    That's true, unless of course the 3rd party grading company put them there in the first place!

  • CladiatorCladiator Posts: 18,189 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Depends on the placement, size of print, size of coin, type of coin, severity of print and the toning patter on the coin. I've seen some printed coins that make you want to heave and others that don't take away at all from the eye appeal.
  • CladiatorCladiator Posts: 18,189 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Here is one of my with a print. Doesn't bother me in the least.

    image
  • zennyzenny Posts: 1,547 ✭✭


    << <i><<< . >>>


    That's true, unless of course the 3rd party grading company put them there in the first place! >>




    Ouch, even i might be bothered by one of those........
  • ElcontadorElcontador Posts: 7,656 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I recently passed on an expensive Barber Half strictly because I didn't like a fingerprint on its obverse.
    "Vou invadir o Nordeste,
    "Seu cabra da peste,
    "Sou Mangueira......."
  • messydeskmessydesk Posts: 20,235 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Depends on the severity and location of the print.
  • airplanenutairplanenut Posts: 22,357 ✭✭✭✭✭
    If they're obvious, I don't like them... if they're relatively low-key, then it depends on what/where
    JK Coin Photography - eBay Consignments | High Quality Photos | LOW Prices | 20% of Consignment Proceeds Go to Pancreatic Cancer Research
  • ElcontadorElcontador Posts: 7,656 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The print was large and impossible to ignore.
    "Vou invadir o Nordeste,
    "Seu cabra da peste,
    "Sou Mangueira......."
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,724 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>If they're obvious, I don't like them... if they're relatively low-key, then it depends on what/where >>



    Same here. Depends on size, location, and severity.

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • If I can detect even the slightest remnant of a fingerprint on a coin I will pass on it, no matter what other great qualities that coin may exhibit.
    Bob
  • CladiatorCladiator Posts: 18,189 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>If I can detect even the slightest remnant of a fingerprint on a coin I will pass on it, no matter what other great qualities that coin may exhibit. >>

    image
  • ms70ms70 Posts: 13,956 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>If I can detect even the slightest remnant of a fingerprint on a coin I will pass on it, no matter what other great qualities that coin may exhibit. >>



    Ditto.

    Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.

  • STONESTONE Posts: 15,275
    Those are some pretty interesting results.

    Much more symmetrical than I would have predicted.
  • mirabelamirabela Posts: 5,094 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Depends on the placement, size of print, size of coin, type of coin, severity of print and the toning patter on the coin. I've seen some printed coins that make you want to heave and others that don't take away at all from the eye appeal. >>



    I agree. I don't own many coins with prints, and I tend not to buy them. Here and there is a lightly fingerprinted coin whose other merits outweigh the negative impact. I have in my hand at this moment, for instance, a really neat proof Washie, a 1979-S with the kind of great color beneath light haze more characteristic of proofs 100 years older, and it has some light prints. You would expect prints on a proof to result in nausea 100% of the time, yet I find this coin strangely compelling. That is why I bought it for the princely sum of $1. You never can tell.
    mirabela
  • MyqqyMyqqy Posts: 9,777
    The older I get, the more fingerprints bother me......
    My style is impetuous, my defense is impregnable !
  • Prints on some coins are very cool. Early 19th century with a print show a kind of history. you can sit back and imagine the soul that handled the coin, a person that has been dead for 150 years. Who were they, where did they live, was it part of their pay or change at the local store? Neat stuff in my mind. However, right now I am on pain meds from carpel tunnel surgery, so that may have something to do with my thought process. MMMMMMM colors on that finger print.
  • dizzyfoxxdizzyfoxx Posts: 9,823 ✭✭✭
    Fingerprints??? They suck!
    image...There's always time for coin collecting. image
  • AZLARRYAZLARRY Posts: 1,189 ✭✭
    I find fingerprints very distracting.
    image
  • QBertQBert Posts: 311 ✭✭✭
    I don't buy coins with fingerprints.
  • CladiatorCladiator Posts: 18,189 ✭✭✭✭✭
    This thread makes me want to start a Dansco 7070 and fill it with fingerprinted coins only. Would probably be pretty inexpensive with the lack of competition for coins. image
  • Dog97Dog97 Posts: 7,874 ✭✭✭
    You guys NEVER post circulated coins with fingerprints so I'm not going to go googoogahgah over a MINT STATE coin with fingerprints because the Mint didn't issue them with fingerprints and the only way they could get fingerprints is if they circulated so....Off with the offending digit.
    Change that we can believe in is that change which is 90% silver.
  • cladkingcladking Posts: 28,703 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It depends on the coin but I normally find them exceedingly distracting even when small.

    I say off with the finger even though it's sometimes the fault of the collector not the one with the finger.
    If you know or suspect a coin has been touched then you should stabilize it with alcohol or acetone before
    storage or display.
    Tempus fugit.

Leave a Comment

BoldItalicStrikethroughOrdered listUnordered list
Emoji
Image
Align leftAlign centerAlign rightToggle HTML viewToggle full pageToggle lights
Drop image/file