I found the CONECA reference for the "trumpet tail" 1945 dime on their website varietyvista.com and now stand corrected on that point. An interesting note is that while CONECA will note in the e-book listings when a coin is scarce, rare or extremely rare, they make no mention of this coin being anything more than common. To the contrary, David Lang states in his book that the trumpet is the scarcest of the two. (micro and trumpet)While I am looking at the listings on ebay for 45 s dimes I have notices far fewer trumpet tail mint marks than the other two. I see about the same number of Micro s as I do the normal ball serif with flat spot on lower ball. I think that may be because of its popularity and its relative availability. I believe there was a 1945 s micro s slot in the cardboard coin folder published by Littleton I had some 40 years ago as a child. An easy to see variety, many people caught on to it quickly. Today the micro S fetches as much as the rare 1940 S/S/s/s FS 501 Mercury in MS66. ebay item numbers for reference 271478509824 and 131130120051 The FS 501 is a rare coin. (ref. CPG fifth ed. vol. 2 pg 65)The Micro S in ms 66 is scarce according to the CONECA websight e-book for Mercury dimes, yet can be found in abundance on ebay and is listed in the CPG as having a URS of 10 -not really scarce, is it? with possibly up to 500 pieces in existence. The reference for the URS uiversal rarity scale can be found in the CPG page xix. Both coins significantly different in scarcity and availability yet commanding the same premium.
I see almost no offerings for the trumpet tail dime. I do see some trumpet tail dimes unattributed in the listings and I pick those up when I can. Seems to me the trumpet tail is ripe for picking. No one else is doing it yet -or at least they are not doing it out loud.
I see almost no offerings for the trumpet tail dime. I do see some trumpet tail dimes unattributed in the listings and I pick those up when I can. Seems to me the trumpet tail is ripe for picking. No one else is doing it yet -or at least they are not doing it out loud.























