Mercury Dime Starter Set

bwbollom. You are correct. My intent was to say it would be "easier" to purchase a complete set(- the 16d), and pay a little more as opposed to this cheaper set that is still missing a lot of dimes. Of course you miss out on hand selecting each coin, so it depends on what you want.

Ok-I bought it. Here is my reasoning; I have a 7070 that I am working on (I realize this is a very long term project). I am also working on a morgan set. I am about 3 away from finishing my first set (Dansco-Franklins, really looking good). I thought the mercs would be fun and this set will give me a jumpstart-I still get to do the searching and having fun but dont have to start from scratch. First thing I will do is buy a different album to put them in. Thanks for your info and opinions. I will keep you updated.

jprine, I am pretty sure I have a Whitman album laying around somewhere in the mess I call a garage. If you are interested you can have it, just send me a pm and let me know where to send it and I'll go look. You bought a nice starter set, but I would encourage you to take your time and hunt out higher grade examples of the missing dates. You can often find vf/xf examples of most of the common dates in dealers bulk silver. If you belong to local coin club, see if any of the members will sell you some at silver value. Mercury dimes make a beautiful set.

Since you already purchased it I hope when you get it all the coins are about as advertised. My experiences are that many people say G-4 and it's AG-2. Maybe not that bad but many just don't know how to grade. Then too it could work in the other way. A so called dealer I know thinks all coins are G-4. I've purchased coins from him that I thought were EF-40 or better and he marks them all as G-4. Hopefully yours will all be great. Really nice starter set.

Congrats on the purchase. You probably did ok.

I would like to mention a couple of things though - especially for others who are looking to buy "sets".

Besides cleaning and obvious gouges, the most over-looked damage are rim nicks or bruises. No TPG will grade them and I notice that some of the coins in the original ad are listed as F-12 and above. However, with Rim damager, they could just as well be AG-3.

For example, when I look at the 1926-S, my eye is immediately drawn to the 12 o'clock position. Looks like some rim damage. But that could also be the picture.

Once again - no disrespect intended. Just observing!

i bought Mercury dimes here for 10 cents each face value I actually traded 40% silver halfs for 5 dimes to a nice person who helped me start off my collection

OH, NO not another Dansco person. I'm a Whitman Album person so that is why I say that. With all the Albums out there I guess in reality those two are the most popular and the best ones for the prices. I just think the Blue color of a Whitman makes Silver coins stand out better. Of course many like the sort of real book appearance of a Dansco too.
Should be nice now for you to see both the obverse and reverses of each coin. And with that if you should have the average Mercury dimes, you may well find the reverses are rotated a little more than other coins. Usually to the left if you look at the top. I've found as a rule about 20 to 25% of all my Mercuy Dimes have that rotated reverse. Irritates me when you spend a lot of time lining up the obverse and turn the page to see the reverses all over the place.

Update-I have recently added the following: 1940 FSB 66, 1940S FSB 66, 1934 FSB 66, 1938 ms63, 1939 ms67, 1944D ms65, and 1945S ms63. Still got a way to go but making progress. Got a local coin dealer looking for a 16D, 21 and 21D; I will have to pay these off over time.