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

It made me smile ... Thanks jbuck.

I had a little palpitation for a minute when I put the loupe to the 42-D. There is clearly doubling on the 4 .. and the 2 ... but the wrong kind ... dang it. Just Machine Doubling.

The AU 1928-D stays with me. Its a beaut, but I have to do some conservation on it before you all get to see it. The blue folder did a wee bit of damage to the reverse, but not bad really. Its at least a 55. Just what I needed. Now all of the coins from 1927-S to 1945 (all of pages 2 and 3) have full, or nearly full mint luster.

I added a 1926-P that was not contained in the set when I bought it, so the count remains the same. No way I'm putting my "newly replaced" 1928-D in with this bunch of scrubs.

On page 1 ... as aside from the fact that there's a blank space where 1916-D is supposed to live ... I need only to upgrade 1919-S, 1921-D, 1926-S, and 1927-D.

I can even keep track of that many in my feeble mind.

Pics of the "prize" later today ... probably this evening if you care to check back in later.

Wth the "bonus" coins ... my cost was driven down to 80.8 cents per coin ... which means that's what I got the 28-D for ... as soon as I toss this set back out there and recover my original investment. Numismedia lists 1928-D in AU-55 at 110.00. 81 cents fits my budget better.

Before I forget ... again. There's another kind of bonus that I've encountered with the old whitman folders. If the coins are worn enough ... you can squeeze 3 in each slot. I got a set once that had no fewer than 6 slots on page 1 that had stacks of slick dimes in them. That was a real surprise too. The coins were junk ... but there were more of them.

Chance

You're right. And the reason things slip past people is generational. It didn't used to be as bad, but seems as though with each generation that comes along ... the less respect they have for the previous generation and/or their interests or passions. They are totally disconnected from it, and for the most part, forfeiting what could be a closer and more meaningful relationship with their elders, which helps to forge better citizens for the future.

It usually goes something like this ..."There's Dad again ... consumed like some idiot with those stupid coins again".

.. Then the stupid old man dies, and the "smart" ones inherit something that they never cared about (and still don't) or even bothered to learn the first thing about. In the end ... when all of us "idiots" die, the "smart ones" are going to give away our most treasured possessions ... or toss the stuff in the dumpster....still convinced that they are right, and that their Dad was an idiot.

That ought to brighten your day ... knowing many of us are looked upon as "goofy" or worse, "stupid" by our progeny.

I'll be content to go to my grave "stupid", but my last will and testament is going to stipulate who gets my treasures. I ain't leavin' it to the "brilliant" ones. I'd rather will it to charity via a large auction house.

Some day I'll show you all my type set....

Chance

Looks really nice.

There really are some good finds to be made yet. The internet in general, and ebay in particular have made the world much more accessible to the average person like myself. Right now I am waiting for coins to arrive from Luxembourg, and the Czech Republic. I've bought Mercury dimes from France, England, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Estonia, Germany, and Australia that I can think of right offhand. Before ebay, that just was not possible for an "average Joe". It takes a lot of diligent searching, but that's the fun part. I'm going to go through my records and mark the source country on the back of each coin holder in the cases where I still have the coin in my set. In some cases, others came along and the foreign acquisitions were sold.

Its fun ... and hopefully, some of the younger collectors will learn from this thread, that this is a good strategy for building a collection, and you don't have to be Howard Hughes to do it. Building a set of Buffalo nickels, buying from from European countries would be interesting because they seem really inexpensive. Flippin' sets I don't believe would work as well. People just are not as fond of "non silver" coins. Mercs have been popular for a long time, and I believe they will continue to be.

Chance

Chance, I so appreciate the time and effort you have put into this thread so that we can share your passion and excitement in this endeavor. Reading this has been so refreshing and has given me some thoughts on passing the time between major purchases.
Thank you!

The 2 seta of junk silver coins arrived here this morning and I've spent the better part of the day cleaning the Whitman Shmooze from the coins. That went OK on the mercs, but it did reveal that it was somebody's collection when they were a kid. I swapped some of the coins out that looked like they'd been cleaned with a finishing nail ... and I nabbed a real high AU 42-D out of the set. The 17-D was a 17-S, There were likewise 2 1918-S coins ... and no D. The very first thing I did was pop the 1916-P out and look for a "D" ... no such luck. I've added some date and mint combinations that were missing or mistakenly placed in the wrong port.

I'm still working on the set of Roosevelt dimes. Apparently the folder was in an attic for a time. The glue that holds the outer paper on ... that's visible in every open port, had gotten hot and created some kind of "creepin' crud' ... that I reasoned would be easy to remove. Faulty logic this time. I'm out of acetone ... no lacquer thinner on the 2 acre wood either ...Pooh! Then I remembered that I'd bought a can of gumout carburetor cleaner (they're Roosevelts and basically worth melt, so I figured what the heck"... Geez Louise ,,, Gumout did nothing, and that;s pretty much Methyl Ethyl Ketone, a solvent used in the fiberglass industry and some pretty nasty stuff, So since MEK wouldn't do it... I used "zip strip" paint and varnish remover to remove the lion's share of the crud. I have them soaking until tomorrow. If the stuff doesn't readily come off, I'm callin' in the big guns. Easy Off Over cleaner. This all sounds very scary to numismatists ... and trust me, if they were something worth more than scrap ... I'd never do it. The good news is that if I ever see the condition on common stuff agin, I'll be better equipped to deal with it.

I didn't check the "S" coins to see if they were indeed in the proper place. Whoever had this collection had to write in the date and Mint after 1960-D, and they added 1961, 61-D and 61-S ... through 1964, so there are 3 ports that wer never going to be filled. I have a single Dansco album page that I'm going to put the restored coins into. There are a handful of BUs in the lot ... and my prize, the one I'm keeping for my 7070 is a dead mint 1965. Looks like it came from a SMS, though that's unlikely. The clad dime in my type set is a 1996 I think. I wanted a 65, and I got one the right way. The 3 Canadian dimes were 1955, 1956, and 1957.
This all sounds like a lot of trouble to go through, but I only paid 15 dollars including postage for the 45 coins, so I don't mind expending a little energy and may expanding my knowledge base where coins in Whitman thumb busters are concerned. I never considered that their glue could cause such a fouled up mess.

I have a set coming in from New Jersey tomorrow. Its missing 16-D 26-S and 31-S. Both 21s are there. Now ... I'm going on past experience when I say I'm confident that the 17-D is a pretty high end coin. The picture is absolute crap. The coin has things I like to see though, like a raise wire edge and hair braid detail .. and feather detail. There are several others on page 1 that make the set easily worth what I had to pay to get it. Heck, the 17-D might be more than half of that value.

I remembered that I had a small format Wayte Raymond "American Coin Collection" binder with Walking Liberty panels in it. I spied a set of 5 nice Merc dime boards on ebay for 10 bucks ... and sold my 7 equally nice walker boards for 20 bucks. The Dime boards arrive tomorrow as well. You can sell a nice set of coins in one of those albums because people will actually look at the listing with more interest. I'll be combining the set I had listed in a Whitman Classic album, with eth nicer stuff I already have here, and some that are coming in tomorrow ... or in thecase of the second set ... coming from Florida ... Friday or Saturday.

Remember I said something about being absent minded? I just noticed yesterday afternoon that the short set I bought just for the 1924-S ... was laying on top of the air conditioner that I pulled from my living room window a few weeks back. I have a reall, and I mean really bad hernia, so until a buddy comes by that can move it for me, it can stay right where it's at. I conserved what I could where that set was concerned, and never sold it. I'll be able to add more to that collection too, though if I don't recover my entire investment ... it'll be darn close. That set cost less than an XF-AU 1924-S ... so if I lose 10 or 20 dollars and a few extra dimes on the deal ... I'll still be A-OK with that. That's not a really easy high grade coin to cherry pick.

The adventure continues ... and friday's set has a nice 1919-S in it. It's in a Whitman Classic album, so I won't have to dynamite the coin from the album and hopefully it's not got a damaged reverse from being in a crappy "blue book"

Thst's a lot to take in ... and I am going to go back through my ebay history and make sure I know what I paid fr what set. I need to get 13 percent more ... to break even.

Oh ... I picked up a 1926-P with FSB from a dealer in Portugal, for 8 dollars ... and 6 dollars shipping. Its a beautiful coin.

More as the Saga unfolds. Maybe some pics tomorrow...

Chance

I'm going to go and save a picture of the crappy Roosevelt dimes so I can show before and after conservation. They'll likely end up at the refinery at some point anyway, but the difference is dramatic. There are 10 coins missing of 48 .. but all easy ones. There are 7 extra UNCs, all 64-Ds, and the 3 Canadians.

Working on the Dansco page now, trying to get a bal point pen to write on that vinyl. It's going "OK" and I'll place the coins in the ports pretty soon.

Got the set in from New Jersey....and the 1921is in the Philly slot, but its a "D". It took all night to do the silver rosies, and my butt's draggin a little. I just heard my oven say its preheated. I'm going to make a couple chicken patty sandwiches and see if that knocks me out. It just might.

I'll post some stuff later this evening.

Chance