Two-year-old passport already losing its gold lettering on the cover — should I be worried?
Looking for some advice or just to hear if anyone's experienced the same.
I got my current passport about 2 years ago and the gold color on the front cover is already fading pretty noticeably. For context, I travel roughly every 2 months to a new country, currently doing a lot around Europe and Asia, so it definitely sees some use. It mostly lives in my backpack or passport case.
The weird part is that only the cover is affected. All the inside pages, the photo page, the chip, everything else is in perfect condition.
What's really throwing me off is that my previous passport lasted 7 years, took me through 42 countries, and I ran out of pages before the cover ever showed any wear. Same general travel style. So this fading feels off.
Has anyone else noticed the newer passports having cheaper/lower quality covers? Or is this just normal wear that I'm overthinking? Mainly worried about:
- Getting hassled at immigration for a "damaged" passport
- Having to replace it early (annoying with all my upcoming trips and visas inside)
Would love to hear your experiences. Thanks!