1916-D Dime. Do I Have What I Think I Have?

Not necessarily; only the completeness of the split is required for the designation and well-struck examples can retain the split into circulation. Three or four PCGS AU examples with split bands have sold at Heritage in the last year, including an AU53 FSB(!) last February.

In my opinion ebay IF you have a reputable account and you know what you're doing.

If not ebay I would call multiple dealers in your area and look for someone willing to pay as close to gray sheet bid as possible - and hopefully over. Obviously they're going to want to see the coin first so you may need to visit some of the dealers before they'll tell you anything. The reason to call first is to try to avoid wasting your time driving over there. If you're not liking any of the offers you can also offer allowing them to sell it on consignment. This means they don't buy the coin from you, they simply sell it and get to keep a small cut (I would offer 5%).

Last I would go with Heritage. They keep a 13% cut of whatever it sells for, which could be worse.

Edit: I just thought about the fact that I've never sold an $11,000 coin on ebay. I have some experience with coins that are a couple thousand, so do some homework first. Look up closed ebay auction prices (that have sold!) on ebay to see what they're going for in different grades. Some close without selling so examine those, too. What was the asking price, and is there a reason people didn't want to buy the coin - like a bad photo or bad feedback. Last, yours is in a PCGS holder, so only look up closed auctions on certified examples. And remember, a PCGS holder will bring in a bit more than ICG or ANACS.

In my opinion, a coin of this caliber should be offered at a major coin-specific auction venue like Heritage. ebay has tarnished its' reputation so much in the last few years that many of the high-end players I know refuse to look there any more. Sure, there will be plenty of people who *might* bid an ebay sale of this coin into the stratosphere, but Heritage essentially makes the market with coins like this and you can be far more confident of a successful sale with them.

Keep in mind, all the auction prices I quote here include the auctioneer's cut, 15% in Heritage's case. That $11,500 coin I mentioned before generated a check of $10,000 for the seller.




It's unfair to you to characterize this as "ignorance." Just something you hadn't learned yet. Numismatics is sometimes like learning to swim by running into a heavy surf.

When you hit 50 posts, you can post it on the forum's for sale section :)

I always thought the consigner to Heritage paid a fee also. I understand the Buyer's Premium but am pretty sure there is also a Seller's Fee of 3% or thereabouts.

I could be wrong. As usual.

Anyone know for sure?

Congratulations!

I was looking through one of Scott Travers books last night and he said typical "Seller's Fees" at major auction houses like Heritage are 5% to 7% but are negotiable on larger sales.

I agree with the Heritage idea. Even if you are paying a higher percentage in commission, if they can get a significantly higher selling price that more than makes up for the difference in commission who cares about the percent? What matters is how much money you get to put in your pocket at the end of the day.

Another problem I've seen with ebay is that very high value auctions have a tendency to attract joke bidders that have no intention of actually buying the coin. While I think they get a slap on the wrist, as far as I can tell they rarely if ever are forced into actually making good on their bid. Reputable auction houses usually pre-qualify bidders, at least on high value items, making this much less of a problem.