Is it true that a roll of dimes or nickles can protect your hand in a fight?

I’ve seen this mentioned in crime fiction. Characters in Rex Stout, and Mickey Spillane novels would protect their hands with a roll of coins. Often a roll of dimes or nickles for guys with bigger hands. IIRC Saul Panzer (a guy Nero Wolfe used often) preferred dimes because he had small delicate hands.

  1. does that really help prevent injured hands in a fight?

  2. did guys that expected to get into street fights really carry a roll of coins for this purpose?

I always found it interesting that this was a defensive technique. Strictly to avoid injury. While brass knuckles were offensive weapons and meant to bust somebody up.

While it would likely increase the damage caused to the recipient by a punch, I can’t see how it would protect one against broken knuckles and cuts.

Common belief is that it makes your punch harder or more effective. I tend to doubt that but I suppose it’s possible. You’re using more effort to accelerate your fist so I’m not sure there’s any more energy available at the point of contact.

From here: Strike Enhancers

The whole article is rather interesting to read, but I have no idea about the author’s qualifications.

The tighter your hand is in a punch the less damage to your hand. A roll of anything or even a piece of clay or a battery in your hand allows you to grip more tightly than just using your hand alone. So I believe this is true.

I have taught students to break simple boards. To those having problems I gave them an AAA battery to grip, they succeeded in breaking boards they previously could not with no damage to their hands.

It works, but the typical paper coin wraps break open on the first punch, mostly. Reinforcing it with tape helps, but it is a well known signal to LE that you were carrying it as a weapon. They may interpret that as you were “looking for trouble.” One of the mini-maglite style aluminum flashlights can be used for the same purpose and, as a bonus, is useful as a flashlight.

The mini-maglite sounds like a good idea. Useful anytime the sun goes down and could help prevent a broken hand in a fight.

I always thought this fiction element might work. Glad to hear that the Rex Stout and Spillane got it right.

It seems like something inside your fist doesn’t actually protect it per se, but rather forces/encourages you to hold your fist tighter to hang onto it, which in turn helps you protect your own hand. You could accomplish the same by simply squeezing your fist tighter.

I doubt the benefit is significant enough to really matter in most situations, and it could be just as big a hinderance to your overall safety. Nobody hits bags or pads holding coin rolls, so doing so in a real situation is gonna feel unnatural and throw your timing/precision off due to the weight of all those coins, making it less likely to get the shot you intend.

Most of the time people break bones in their hands is when they hit parts of the body they weren’t aiming for, or hit them on a bad angle that changes at the last second. Even professionals miss the vast majority of the punches they throw, so you’re very likely to not hit the target the way you want to anyway. If you’re setting up a sucker punch where you have a pretty good chance of hitting where you want because the other guy is not reacting to you, a roll of coins probably would give you a measurable benefit. In a typical dynamic situation you’ll likely still break your pinky when the guy ducks and twists and you hit the top of his skull on a 45 degree angle.

It is actually easier to grip something than just use your empty grip tighter. Also some striking gloves contain a piece of something inside the glove to allow you to grip it the same way a roll of dimes work, so you CAN be used to punching that way.

No, not really. The best way to prevent injured hands in a fight is to run away.

Failing that, if you gotta hit, use a palmheel strike or better yet, an elbow strike. Much more devastating and much less chance of injury to you.

More mass means you hit harder since there’s more momentum to your blow. A roll of coins probably doesn’t add much though; I’ve heard of people using gloves weighted with lead* or mercury, they’re much heavier.

*Example:

It adds structural stability to your fist making it less likely to be injured and your punch more effective. It’s easy to demonstrate to yourself. Make a tight fist and then try to move your fingers in the fist with your other hand’s thumb. Pretty easy to get a lot of movement. Now grip a battery/roll of coins/what have you and try again. A lot harder to get any movement. Which fist would you rather get punched by? Which one is more likely to break or sprain a finger?

Well say that you have a long 2x4. You can either balance it on another piece of wood or you can balance it on a stack of towels. When a big fat guy jumps up and slams his feet down on either side of the support you’ve added, which choice would be better to keep the 2x4 from splitting?

In general, I think that the roll of coins would be large enough that it doesn’t create a significant fulcrum, but if you had a roll of dimes and you were hitting something concave, there would be the potential for extra damage. That’s very specific though.

In most cases, it would simply provide better support behind the bone for any sort of damage.

You’re using more effort to accelerate, but for an average roundhouse punch you’ve got plenty of time and space to build up speed, and are probably going to be going about as fast as you can move your arm, whether you’re holding a small weight or not. So the fist with a roll of nickels inside will have more energy than an empty one.

I’m not sure how much practical difference there would be, though.

Hitting someone with an elbow sounds like it would be really difficult, unless you’re already in close and grappling.

When the Riffs beat Cleon to death in The Warriors at least some of them were using elbows.

Isn’t it just putting something between your fingers and fist to make the impact on your own palm less severe? Like when when boxers wear mitts.

In the stuff you’re talking about, rolled quarters would be a valid thing that you happened to carry, and happened to be holding in your hands. These days a mobile phone would work equally as well. Esp. if it were a really old fucking phone, like your character might have. “Whoever knew it could come in useful!”

Gloves generally protect the fighters’ hands/fingers through padding. It allows them to punch harder without breaking the fingers - I don’t think it is for protecting your palms.

The idea behind the roll or quarters is that it allows you to create a fist that is more solid and non-deformable. This means that with less movement and shifting on impact you’ll do less damage to yourself, and possibly more damage to others.

Are broken bones in the palm/wrist an issue? I thought it was mainly finger bones that were a concern?

As I mentioned in my previous post, it’s the extra weight of the coins that’ll throw you off most, not whether or not you’re used to gripping something in your palm. Being used to squeezing a few extra layers of leather in your gloves wouldn’t be very comparable to holding a 150g metal cylinder.

This would be applicable if the bones coiled around the cylinder were the ones at risk of breaking from being able to move slightly; thats seldom the case. As mentioned previously, it’s usually the metacarpals, not the phalanges that break; they take the force from the end rather than the side. Here’s a link to a couple x-rays of pro fighters broken hands; note that these were very big men, using hand wraps/gloves, and professionally trained - so I’m not singling out frail people who don’t know how to hit. The type of force that broke these bones (and most other people’s) wouldn’t be affected much if at all by holding a roll of coins.

http://www.cagepotato.com/mark-hunt-ryan-bader-post-photos-of-broken-hands-suffered-at-fight-night-33/

Having something in your fist also has the added benefit of keeping your thumb on the outside of your fist, which is how a lot of novice punchers injure themselves when striking.

You can sprain your wrist by landing wrong or if your wrists aren’t strong enough. Which is one reason why the wing tsun folks and the Japanese military teach punching with the thumb uppermost - a stronger wrist position (as well as better knuckle contact). Some fighters do push-ups on their knuckles to strengthen the wrists.

A break in the metacarpal bones in the hand is known as aboxer’s fracture because it is common to receive such an injury from punching with a bare fist.

The human fist was not designed to be used against hard surfaces like skulls. Adding mass in the form of a roll of quarters just adds to the problem. If you want a weapon to add to the mass and effect of a punch, use brass knuckles.

Regards,
Shodan