My Liberty Head / Mercury Dimes (Hi, I'm New Here!)

The shop that has a decent 21d in stock has been closed all week, so I have to wait a little longer to pick it up. There's also a coin show coming to town next weekend, so since I've waited this long, I might wait a little longer and see what the dealers there have to offer before I fill in that last hole. I did pick up this today, so I'm one step closer to completing my set:


I have been thinking about ways to go about upgrading my collection and I'm of two minds on this and wanted to get some opinions. I was thinking I could either a) go for graded versions all in a specific grade range, or b) buy raw but nice mercs, all in a similar grade to place in an album.

There are issues, of course, with both...with graded coins I'm probably going to be spending a bit more, paying for the guaranteed grade and slab, but I'll know what I have. Raw would likely be a little less...I might be able to buy coins a step up in some cases...but my eye for grades isn't great and I don't want to get taken by dealer grades and pay more than I should for lesser coins.

Any opinions on what to do, or what you have done, once you've completed a lower grade set and want to start upgrading with nicer ones?

Kevin: Thanks! For the last week or so I've really been considering starting my upgraded set with graded coins. I've been looking at a lot of them on ebay and even have a few in my watchlist. But today when I was at the local shop looking for a micro-s, I saw so many nice, raw ones at much better prices that I'm definitely reconsidering. I also like the clean, organized look of an album like you. If I did buy graded coins, I'd want them all in the same type of slab for the organized look, otherwise I'd never be happy with it. I think it might be more trouble than it's worth to me...

Albums, has anyone used an Intercept Shield Album?

Any thoughts on those? I was reading about them earlier, but I've never seen one in person. I like the archival aspects that I'm reading, and they look nice in the photos...just wondering if anyone here uses them.

Nice set you have there, keep on collecting. The only thing I hate personally is sets with expensive Keys, seems like I never collect a full set. Just me that is, I hope you do complete it and as was said upgrade certain coins if you can.

Tony

I'm sort of a Whitman Classic Album person. Mostly due to that is the only thing around when I was a kid a long, lont time ago. Lately I've had the advantage of going ot a lot of coin shows and got to know dealers. Some tell me they purchase coins in Albums, put them in flips for sale at the shows as individual coins. They then throw out the Albums. I've asked for them if possible and usually get them free. At one show a dealer brought me over 40 of them of all different makes and types of coins. Many other times similar but not that many and I too give most away. Nice way to cheaply improve the amount of albums you have.
Back to your question. I started out with a set much like yours but possibly much worse in grades. Over the years I slowly purchased or found better ones so they would replace the ones in the #1 set. The ones that came out of the #1 set would go into a 2x2 as a duplicate. Eventually I acquired another Album. All the duplicates went into that as #2. This continued over the years until now I have just finished #12. Since the Whitman Album Covers are large enough, I usually place two sets in each cover and note this on the front with those press on gold letters/numbers. Two separate sets are the Sitting Liberty/Liberty Head/Mercury Dime Albums but nothing to interchange with the #1 to #12 sets yet.
As of today I am still accumulating duplicates of Mercury dimes. From 1940 to 1945 go into those plastic tubes. From 1916 to 1939 go into 2x2's waiting for a possilbe set #13. Total Mercury dimes are about over 3,000. Way, way to many.

wheatguy:
I had all of my Mercurys in a Whitman from when I was a kid, but just moved them over to the Dansco a month or so ago...just trying to figure out what the best thing would be for long term storage because I'm not terribly happy with what happened to them in the Whitman.

As you can see from the pics, all of the dimes that I purchased when I was a kid are now nice and toned...deep brown. All of the ones which were recently purchased are silver. I don't know if it was the Whitman album or some combination of the elements the coins were stored in (pretty much always in a room with AC, etc.) but I'd rather not have this happen with any upgraded coins that I purchase.

Glad you're joining the ranks of the Mercury set collectors! It's a fun one...definitely my favorite!

tonphil1960:
Thanks! I completely agree. I wish the 16d wasn't quite so expensive, but I guess then it wouldn't be a "key". One of these days I'll get one...until then I'll just have to wait and be happy with upgrading the rest of my set.

just carl:
Thanks for your info and advice! Sounds like you've had your share of experience collecting these! Since you like the Whitman albums, have you had any experience like mine with the toning? As you can see in my images in my initial post, there's a drastic difference between the dimes I purchased 15-20 years ago and placed in the album then and then ones I purchased a few weeks/months ago and placed in my new Dansco.

fioti:
Screamer?

Thanks everyone! I haven't dropped in here in a while...it's great to see all of the replies that have been posted since I've been gone.

I went to a coin show a couple of weekends ago looking for a 21d (the last that I need other than the 16d) and all of the ones available were far out of my price range except for one that looked like it had been through a garbage disposal I took a pass on that one...I think my local shop still has one available as soon as I decide to pick it up, but I'm going on a trip this coming weekend and I thought I'd check some of the shops there before making the purchase just to make sure I couldn't find a better deal.

I did buy an upgrade for one date and then two others at another small "collectibles" show last weekend. I'm hoping to slowly upgrade my set to VF-AU dimes over the next 20 years

TreasHunt:
Are you sure? I could be wrong, but I have these two (sorry for the large scans) and there definitely looks to be a difference:
Regular S


Micro S

The shop where I bought it had it marked as a micro s, so I thought it was, but they could be wrong too. I didn't pay any sort of premium, so if it's not, I won't be disappointed...just will have to find another :) I definitely want to get it straight though.

Thanks!

TreasHunt:
Thanks...I was hoping I was correct. Forgot about the one I posted on the first page.

Thanks on the labels too!

I'm finally down to just the 1916d on my original, highly circulated set! Picked this beauty up today:

Yeah, it's well worn, but it fits right in with the rest of the set put together when I was much younger. Now I can really get to work on my nicer XF/AU set.