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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 2784983, member: 112&quot;]Not necessarily so. It is not at all unusual (as Larry mentioned) for fingerprints to not be visible when you get the coin, and for them to be visible later on. Point being the fingerprints could very easily have been on the coin when you got it - you just couldn&#039;t see them until you got it back.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>That is at least a semi-accurate statement. I&#039;ve never even heard of a TPG informing anyone that their coin had a fingerprint on it. As a rule, fingerprints are just ignored. There are a great many slabbed coins that have fingerprints on them. And most of the time, those fingerprints do not affect the grades assigned by the TPG. Personally, I believe fingerprints should absolutely affect the grade in a negative manner. But, the TPGs do not.</p><p><br /></p><p>As to why owners are not informed if their coin has a visible fingerprint in it, it&#039;s because the graders know that the only way of removing them is to dip the coin. And that&#039;s not always a wise choice. </p><p><br /></p><p>Now there&#039;s a couple of things that you may or may not understand about fingerprints on coins. I don&#039;t know if you do or not, but if you don&#039;t .........</p><p><br /></p><p>Fingerprints can be removed from a coin with acetone, but only if and when the fingerprints are fresh. And fresh can be defined as being less than week old. And it is very common, almost a given in fact, that fingerprints are all but invisible when they are fresh. If the prints are more than a week old, because of their acidic nature they begin to become etched right into the metal of the coin. And it is usually only when they become etched into the metal that they become visible. And even them they are typically only visible if you view them from a specific angle, or angles. At other angles they won&#039;t be visible. That&#039;s why they show up in some pictures and not in others.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now all of that said, is it possible that somebody at a TPG could put fingerprints on a coin ? Yes. But it is very unlikely. And you are far from being the first person to make such a claim. But in almost all cases the fingerprints were on the coin before the owner ever sent it in - they just didn&#039;t see them.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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