Quickest, easiest way to ruin a beautiful old piece of copper..........

coinsarefun

.........be silly enough to take a large order that just shipped to me today, unwrap and lay it on the desk.

Come back a few hours later and trim with an exacto-knife some other items on my desk and FORGET what was underneath



Learn from my stupidity and don't keep anything sharp near coins


Thank goodness it was one of the cheaper ones, but still pisses me off as I have never done this before.

lordmarcovan

OW!

Get you some sulfur-Vaseline paste and retone that scratch.

Bummer.

I once accidentally threw away a nice love token Seated dime in a public wastebasket, and only discovered my error after the trash had been picked up and taken away.

Monetarily, it was a <$20 loss, but it still irks me.

I often wonder what the 23rd century archaeologists will think when they find a 19th century love token in a late-20th century landfill, and picture their baffled expressions.

savoyspecial

>>I often wonder what the 23rd century archaeologists will think when they find a 19th century love token in a late-20th century landfill, and picture their baffled expressions.>>

keyman64

So sorry to hear this!

TwoSides2aCoin

The staple scratch is by far the most wicked of all . It's dreaded and still happens. Sorry to see it happen in such an unorthodox way. Not that there is an Orthodox way.

TopographicOceans

Bummer

lasvegasteddy

crap happens
life is in session and surely this is the last time this will happen to you
sorry to hear about this though

Treashunt

sorry to see that, that sucks

PerryHall

Ouch! Deller's Darkener will make that scratch a whole lot less visible.

BillJones

When I read the title, I was thinking "steel wool," but knives are quicker.

I am sorry for your loss.

JCLIGHTBRIGADE

Yikes, my worst was putting my finger print on the coin, well ur maybe I touched it maybe I didn't, while trying to get it into a flip for grading...It was at that prior moment the finest looking example I'd ever handled...

So gave it a quick acetone bath just in case.....then while rotating it dry....

I dropped it from waist high onto a hardwood floor...

where it then took off like a rocket car across the room...

hit a chair...then swiveled to a shaking spinning stop. It didn't look so good anymore or at least I didn't remember seeing the marks that weren't there 20 seconds ago.

So a coin that maybe had a shot at the top, a $5K coin instead came back a plain jane PR 65.

Oops. As Forest said, Stuff happens

ricko

Sorry to see this Stef..... we have all had our 'dammit' moments though... Cheers, RickO

1Mike1

Look on the bright side, you came up 7’s! Narrowly missed the 1 and 9.

mariner67

So sorry.
Humble and big of you to share.
Thanks for the reminder to be more careful with our coins.

PerryHall

If it was me, I would darken that scratch to improve its appearance and then sell it with full disclosure that it has a scratch and then move on. You will never enjoy that token because the first thing you'll do when looking at it is to focus on that scratch and you'll feel badly about it.

rhedden

Perhaps bury the evidence so you don't get charged with 1st degree coin murder?

Seriously speaking, I am really sorry to see this happened to your coin. Accidents happen, and it was just your unlucky day- don't be too hard on yourself.

Stuart

Stefanie: Based on your scratch test at least you now know for certain that your token appears to be pure copper, and not just copper plated...

I'm sorry that it happened, but am glad that it was one of the less expensive tokens.

Thanks for sharing to help us all become a bit more aware of the potential pitfalls of when collecting intersects with every day tasks & life...

golden

TPRC

<< <i>Stefanie: Based on your scratch test at least you now know for certain that your token appears to be pure copper, and not just copper plated...

I'm sorry that it happened, but am glad that it was one of the less expensive tokens.

Thanks for sharing to help us all become a bit more aware of the potential pitfalls of when collecting intersects with every day tasks & life... >>



That saddens me since this piece had escaped harm for so long. Last winter I bought a nice xf Hard Times Token and proceeded to lose it in the snow in my brother's driveway. He found it in the spring. It is mostly a lost cause. About the same net loss in my case ($40 purchase worth about $10 now), but it feels like more than that.

messydesk

Walkerfan

Painful lesson!

ARCO

There are much worse ways to damage / ruin a coin. Your coin still has great eye appeal overall. I once cut open a package with scissors and the scissors got a hold of the coin. OUCH!

Tyler

LindeDad

Another reason that slabs are worth the money.

asheland

VanHalen

Don't light your hair on fire. Learn and progress.

I've heard it said that "we should learn from other's mistakes because we won't live long enough to make them all ourselves".

johnny9434

its gonna happen. ( one heck of a way to learn something but there it is )

coinsarefun

Thanks for all the comments everyone. This was the first time I did such a thing and it happened because I was
in a hurry......I'm not horrified by this as I said it was one of the lesser valued tokens but non the less it ought me to
slow down......specially around valuable items



I also posted this as some here said.......as a reminder to all....yes it can happen so pay attention