What's the worst thing you've ever done to a coin?

My pride and joy:

It was cleaned when I got it...





I win You'll notice that it's signed and dated, too

Jeremy

I should list it as BU with mint-made die adjustment marks

What Louis said.

Note to self: Cancel that group of coins I was going to send to Tassa.

GSAGUY

I had a choice Au with mint luster 1822 bust half that had been given to me by my grandfather in 1966. Over the next several years I subjected that coin to numerous forms of cleaning to keep the tarnish off: silver polish, erasers, and I think Brasso. The more I cleaned it, the quicker the tarnish reappeared and had to be removed. I got a bath every week whether I liked it or not so why not my coins? I ruined a perfectly wonderful orig AU half and turned it into a decrepit cleaned and pitted XF piece worth about $60 when I finally sold it. I had an identical 1877cc dime that I did keep and it now is a decrepit cleaned XF worth about $15-20. While not as significant as pliers or RR tracks, the end result was similar.


roadrunner

Jeremy, if that coin was cleaned when you got it how come it doesn't say so on the holder---------------BigE

shot a dime with a rifle

I dipped a DCAM proof Lincoln. I didn't rinse properly so it became horribly spotted. That was my first and last experiment with dipping

I'm aweful I burn them, drilled holes in them, flated them. made a ring out of the old silver coin lost them but the worst thing I think was to submit some to acg.

<< <i>My pride and joy:

It was cleaned when I got it...

>>



So you got mad and did all that other stuff right?

Years back while in basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood most of us had a lot of spare time in the barracks so we all decided to make rings out of half dollars. Walking libertys work the best since the date gets rolled to the inside . All you have to do is take 2 or 3 mess hall spoons, tape them together and sit for hours tapping around the edges of the coin with the inside of the bowl of the spoon. When the ring gets to the right size, just take a knife and hollow it out to fit. Makes a nice ring but hard on the coin. I have long since lost mine but see them at flea markets once in a while.

Most people now days would not know what one looks like.

Hey Carl, that wasn't a 68-S, was it?
Oh, as a kid, I would turn pennies into dimes for the pop machine!

Sold it to GSAGUY

I too melted down some junk coins, mostly old copper wheats.......tried melting a zinc cent with a torch, but it just made this neat green flame as the copper curned off and all I was left with was a little gray blob of zinc.

<< <i>Pointed my finger and said "Bad coin!"


let the anger go...you'll feel better

when I was 12 I melted a WL half with a blowtorch. It had been an inherited and slick AG.
It didn't totally liquify, just sort of got bubbly.
Sold it that same year (1979) for like $8 in "melt" silver to my local coin shop.

I would like to refer you all to this horrifying story of one forum member's penchant for destruction.

WARNING! Read with Caution!