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that Fingerprint ....

14 posts in this topic

 

I was looking at STACKS' offerings and came across this Peace dollar with a big fat fingerprint on it. DANG.

 

Then I got to thinking, it would be so cool, illegal, but cool to know who's fingerprints these are on coins. There have got to be millions of fingerprints on record in a government database somewhere. It would be so neat to know that my Peace dollar has Marilyn Monroe's fingerprint on it, or William McKinley, or Malcolm X, or you name it. More likely than not, it would just be a regular, everyday, soul. Someone to whom probably never worked for the government, or was arrested, or whatever other reason their fingerprint would be on file. But I just think it would add another layer to the collectability of the hobby. Much like toned coins did, and the sheldon scale did, and registry sets did. Just something different and exciting.......not that the hobby needed anything new and exciting. As for now, I just look at this fingerprint and wonder, who were you?

 

240247_05_zpsbcde66f7.jpg

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I can guarantee it's not William McKinley

 

Im sure there was a regular Joe named William McKinley alive in the twenties that could have manhandled a few peace dollars........... but yes not president McKinley.

 

Nick

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I shot this picture quite some time ago. The fingerprints on this one are most likely from a CC mint worker in 1881, perhaps from picking up the coin and inspecting it. These went from the mint into storage, then 90 years later the people that sorted and holdered them for the GSA sale all wore cotton gloves.

 

An interesting challenge (for someone who really likes fingerprints) might be to find fingerprinted GSA coins and match them up with each other from the print.

 

81ccv2_full.jpg

 

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If a coin fingerprint could be associated with a specific mint employee, that would be an award-winning display.

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