Some Additions To My Mercury Dimes And Other Parts Of My Collection After A 2 Year Dry Spell

Negotiated a BIN price for this set this morning. The set is about the same vintage as the Syracuse set that had so many great coins in it. I'll likely just sell a roll of 50 different, and keep 6-10 of the rest, at least temporarily. Some of the coins are hard to get a read on ... while some appear to be "no brainers" ... unless the mildew smell means the reverses of the coins are etched. I rather doubt it, but its possible. This set is only an hour from my home before going into the postal system.

Maybe a chance for an upgrade or 2 ... I've never been real thrilled with my 1934-P, which has rather subdued luster ... and I need a 42-S FB. Maybe this one will be FB.

272985616615

Chance

That's a wee bit outside my budget too. The set I'm waiting for now has a real high end 16-S. Maybe it'll turn out to be a "D" instead. That's not going to happen ... but its fun to imagine "what if"....

I've been really scrutinizing these little gems lately, and San Francisco must have had a terrible time keeping their dies from rusting. You'll look at some of these mint state coins and think you see scratches ... but they're raised ... from the dies having to be abraded, presumably to remove rust. The phenomena is frequently noted on Morgan dollars too.

For the tail end of the series, I need 44-P and S and 45-P and S FB coins. The reverse dies were already pretty much played out in 44.

Chance

These coins speak for themselves ... IF people take the time to learn to evaluate them for themselves. Without the ability to determine at least ballpark grade ... within a point or 2 ... you're missing half of the fun of collecting. That's the way I see it.

If the sky is grey ... I don't need to pay somebody to tell me its blue.

Chance

When you have your coins certified, you're trusting somebody else's judgement...and must abide by what they say.

The problem seems to be resubmissions, crossovers ... folks don't want the "sanctimonius" grade ... they want the grade they think it is.

Listings on ebay alwasy say ... "looks better"

The same "consensus" grade will often vary if the same coin is cracked out and submitted again ... so how much weight should you afford the TPGs? ... it could get expensive trying to get the grade you want ... I know there's a lot of money from point to point with high grade stuff .. so I understand the reasoning....but for me, it just raises the cost of the coin to a level where it needn't be

Now then ... If I get a high grade key date ... like a 1916-D merc in MS ... different story, since a lot of us have allowed the TPGs to make us too lazy to do the research, and those kind of coins won't sell for the right money unless certified.

Watched a youtube video of a guy who tried crossing over some cameo proofs from NGC to PCGS ... and PCGS removed the cameo designation. He resubmitted one asking if it had been a mistake ... and they said "nope"... not cameo.

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

The sky was grey today, BTW.

On a completely different note ... I coersed the seller of a set of mercs on ebay into selling me the only coin in the set that had any value to me.

Here's a teensy weensy picture of it.

Chance

A victory! Very nice!

Bought myself a Christmas gift last night....

Worth mentioning ... you're looking through a mylar flip. The scratches in the lower right reverse field appear to be on the flip, not the coin.

Chance

Oh, my! She is stunning!


Surly you jest? Nice photo, definitely.

Bought this out of the UK a little while ago. They grade a bit more conservatively than we do. This was listed as VF condition. Looks XF45 to me ... maybe AU50. Its hard to tell from blurry scans that are so small, but nobody in this country is going to sell this coin for what was asked for it on the ( ebay) UK site.

Its not a coin I needed for the collection, but a decent 17-D isn't that easy to come by, so I'll turn it into a coin I need ... or maybe a couple coins I need. It was too good to pass up.

Should have some fun arriving tomorrow.

Chance

Sorry about the tiny pics. My computer "ate" the image of the reverse that was a bit larger.