Are fingerprints a negative when buying a coin?

I'll pass on using any type of soap on coins. Water, Acetone and Xylene do the job with no risk.

 

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There are lots of chemicals in dishwashing soaps that are intended to do generally beneficial things in the dishwashing realm, but not so much in the coin conservation realm. Except for low-value ground finds and the like, I would stay away from these products.

 

Well on the other forum there was the problems with buyers purchasing 100% acetone from the some big box stores but finding out when they tested it it left residue on the mirror glass. So, they had to throw that out and get it somewhere else, I can't remember the brand they found that tested PURE but it didn't come in a can from from ACE Hardware labeled 100% acetone.
Then, the comments like darn! I've been using the wrong stuff all these years,
Or,
You mean 100% acetone may not be just acetone?
But, we can agree to disagree too. I really don't expect others to do what I do.
I mean at best I'm just another view of things.
I would never wash a coin in tap water, and rinse in distilled!
I go way out of my way to not drink it!
I learned back in 1969 that tap water in most places would eat a copper radiator completely out of a car. Take the toilet tank lid off your toilet and look at the brass mounting bolts, if they've been in there very long they'll look horrible!
Copper plumbing after about 25 to 30 years of city tap water will start to get millions of holes in the lower parts of it.
I really don't like tap water for anything! and that's the better tap water, some is REALLY BAD!
I bought my first new car in 1977, I had a goal the day I bought it, get it home as SOON as possible and for god's sake get that Detroit Tap water out of it, yes! I rushed home in a Brand New vehicle and did a radiator drain & flush using distilled water, and refilled it with 50/50 mix of antifreeze and distilled water.
Many years later it finely became the norm to only use premix antifreeze or mix ONLY distilled water in with straight antifreeze.
If a coin has been exposed to city TAP WATER, its needs cleaned, its screwed..

If its been in the pockets of a laborer in HOT weather, the coin NEEDS cleaned!
Its not possible to pull a well circulated coin out of circulation for a collection and it not need CLEANED! (washed). When I worked as a mechanic on and off for nearly 40 years, those coins in my pocket needed cleaned before any of them got put in a coin collection, battery acid, brake fluid, transmission fluid, safety solvent parts cleaner, grease, antifreeze, gear oil, used motor oil etc.......
I've lived a life on the dirty side of things, so, in my thinking is a well rinsed dawn & distilled water Copper Lincoln a good thing, or is it going to contribute to the decay of the coin?
There is people in this hobby that is scared to do anything to remove circulation residue from even common circulated raw coins, they'll put them into a collection with salt, sweat, chemicals, laundry detergents, finger prints, perfumes, food greases & oils, etc...
I still say its not likely to find a well circulated coin that hasn't been washed a number of times and in a uncontrolled environment, laundry, casinos coin washers, etc...
Would I want to wash a $5,000 AU coin in anything, probably not, would I pay any money to have a grading service clean it and slab it NO!! Do that and break it out of the slab and send it to another grading service, it'll get marked CLEANED and not get a details grade!
So, cleaning coins can be a catch 22, da** if you do, da** if you don't.
Here its just about sharing different views, in the end everyone has to make up their own mind.
I agree that tested pure acetone seems to be the go to for higher end collectors.

 

I may be silly here - but fingerprints? I am assuming this must be an issue with recent mint state coins? I only own old stuff - the newest coin I own for collection purposes is 1865. I can't imagine a fingerprint being an issue on something that old, ms or not. I have never held a coin that I could see a fingerprint on. So this entire discussion eludes me. Is this a real thing or a joke? Or is it just a real thing for recent/modern mint state issues (which I could see where it could make sense). Are people collecting coins or perfection? I'm sorry, I'm kind into the history end of it all. Maybe someone could help me understand what this is all about and why it matters?

 

This is a great example of a coin that changed in the slab. Prints can take a long time before they start to show. It's a matte proof.

 

I suspect who ever sent the 1911 Lincoln in for grading put their fingerprint on that coin getting it into a flip to send it in. What a shame.

 

This one has a pretty prominent print on the obverse.

 

To me, a fingerprint automatically draws my eye. The purpose of my collection is, in part, to enjoy the design. If a print takes away from that enjoyment by drawing my eye to it, it is certainly a negative.

 

I agree.