Bought A Dime Collection From An Unlikely Place

Surprisingly, on my trip to Spain last month, I saw more "collecting" stores than I have ever seen here in the states. I saw quite a few of coin stores, which mostly had European old silver coins. Some of the stores had Morgan and Peace dollars. Many of the stores had coins, currency, and stamps all together.

This collection has yet to arrive ... but I was doing some studying, and I have arrived at the sad conclusion that the 1916 and the 1921 are altered ... if not outright counterfeits. They will still present an interesting study. This one of those "teachable moments".

I decided to study the 1921 just to see if I could guess which issue it was prior to its arrival. I began looking at 1921s ... and noticed that the digits in the date are far too close together for a 1921. On all of the early issues the 3rd digit in the date is directly below the right side of the truncation of Liberty's neck. The spacing of these digits makes me think its either a 1931 ... or an altered 1931. Then I noticed the "loop" in the 9 was closed. That feature doesn't appear on Mercury dimes until 1928.

A study of the 9's used in the dates is really interesting. They didn't close it in one year. In 1924 it's fully open, as it was on the all of the previous issues. Closing the loop in the 9 was a 3 year transition. The 1925's "9" is a bit more closed than the 24. The 26's "9" is a bit more closed than the 25s, the 27's "9" is almost fully closed ... but is still "open". The 1928's "9" is fully closed.

The coins that are real will probably be worth what I paid, or a bit more, but unless you place a value on education ... its not the big score I was hoping for.

I'll take some pictures when they get here.

The 2 I bought from Italy arrived yesterday, and they're real nice. Even with the postage those 2 were a good deal. I only paid $10.61 for the 1918, and the 1929 was $6.00. The $9.00 postage drove the price up a bit, but not beyond what they're worth (to me).

Chance

Got 'em.

The 1916 is genuine... and a Philly issue, naturally.

The pictures of the 1921 dated coin tell the story.

I'll take some better pics of the "keepers" of the lot a little later. I have some engraving that has to be done today...so that will have to wait a bit.

The best coin of the lot is the 1917-P, followed by the 1919-P. Those both have split bands, but are not the monster strikes needed to truly be designated FSB.

The funny thing is that I need about half of the roosevelts in an old Dansco album. I keep "extra" dimes in it, but there are slots for a merc set and a roosevelt set too.

Chance

Interesting purchase and an interesting discovery on the 19"2"1 dime.

I had never noticed that before. Very interesting.