What Turns You Away From A Coin?

For me, it has to be if the coin has deep gouges or carvings in it. I don't mind a hole, but I wouldn't display it in my collection. Probably just make it a key chain or something.

Ha! Sifu that's pretty funny and true too

If a coin has ANY sort of problem then I don't want it.
I would rather wait for a problem free coin to show up

I have developed a hierarchical list of why I shouldn't buy this coin. Mistakes have been made in the past and the purpose of this list is to avoid making them again in future - as much as possible.

The most obvious answer that doesn't even need to be on the list is: fakes. I don't need any "really nice copies" to "make my collection better and more complete".

So, onto the list itself, ranked from 100%-no-buy, through those less problematic and somewhat more acceptable depending on the type, its availability, and the presence of other redeeming features of a given coin, down to those used only if there is a ready supply of a given type/date:

1: anything that's bent, holed, has missing chunks, filed down rims etc.
2: other intentional damage including excessive or recent cleaning, scraping, polishing, but also carving out letters, and "improving" features.
3: environmental damage (degree may vary, metal detecting finds go here).
4: major circulation damage such as multiple rim nicks.
5: old cleaning that has retoned.
6: planchet problems.
7: minor circulation damage which happens to be in particularly noticeable locations.
8: above-average degree of normal circulation wear.
9: natural toning that's somehow distracting.

If the government is currently a theocracy.

This basically.
(But my boundary of "very large price" is usually somewhere around $5-10, which means I'm pretty much shut off from a lot of the silver series entirely.)

Also what duncanbishop24 wrote: I almost never buy coins with visible big gouges/scratches (and try to stay away from coins with post-mint holes unless they're really rare and/or really cheap). Missing pieces... it depends (if it's not to distractingly ugly, I'll probably take it if it's cheap enough).

I also try to stay away from anything that heavily disturbs identification (usually, extreme environmental damage and/or extreme wear without a still-visible date; note that I have completely no problem with extremely worn coins that have a visible date and no obvious damage). And I don't really like coins with a lot of environmental damage generally (regardless of how identifiable they are).

Non-certified key dates, seller with low feedback or obnoxious pricing, any damage whatsoever and ugly toning (I do like a nicely toned coin though).

If its is dated to the other 99 years of a century other than '82