1942 S Mercury Dime MS Prices - Coin Community Forum

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I've been building a Merc dime registry set and generally doing PCGS MS66 for the later dates, or maybe a little less with FB. Looking at the graysheet, without FB, every coin from the 40's is at most 30 in 66 and and most are 45 in 67. For 42s, there's definitely a FB premium in 65 and above, but 64FB is only 20. At least for 66, there's also not a huge disconnect between the PCGS retail prices, listing it at 40 bucks.

Perusing eBay prices, just about every other coin from the 40's, including those with lower pop reports in 66, either has plenty of auctions or BIN's for not that much of a premium and I've been gradually picking them up. But in the months I've been doing this, I very rarely see a 42s anywhere close to realistic prices. There have only been three sales the last three months: one auction in December that went for 35 and two BINs for about 45. There are currently no non-FB 66's listed, one 67 at 150 bucks and the cheapest one period is a 65 for 64 bucks. The cheapest FB is a 65 for 120, which matches the PCGS price.

I happened to be at a show today and was talking with a dealer who specializes in Mercs and he said as soon as he buys a 42s he sells it. Is there any particular reason this might be? I do realize the pop report for MS coins is kind of low, but it's not the lowest of the late dates and doesn't seem to be so low as to justify such a huge demand or high eBay premiums.

There's plenty of 42'S, maybe not many graded high in FB.

I'm speculating it was hoarded, because it was the year of WW2 started, even though it started end of 1941 with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I wouldn't be surprise there's still original bank wrapped rolls sitting in someone basement.

That's an interesting point, maybe because SF is on the west coast. In any case, I just ran some numbers for all other Mercs from the 40s, which should span the whole US involvement in the war, on eBay and this is by far the least.

Oddly enough, a 66 just popped up in an eBay auction since I posted the original here, with a starting price about 75 percent above even the PCGS price guide. I'm perfectly used to seeing prices above the graysheet on there, but this is such a wild disconnect.

After a quick look at some FB 40s merc dime populations, it seems that the 42s in MS65-FB up to MS68+-FB does have a lower PCGS population (1,989 total) than several of the other 1940's options, like 41s (3,756 total), 43s (2,247 total), 44s (3,581 total).

This is a very small representative sample, but what it shows is that macmercury appears to be correct, the 42s just doesn't have the population that other merc dimes of the 40's have in 65FB and up.

I think that relative scarcity drives up the price in two ways: (1) there are legitimately fewer so a higher price is expected and (2) because there are fewer, they go up for purchase less often, meaning people dish out more when they are available, which inflates prices beyond the PCGS price guide expected value.

I have 12 sets of Mercury dimes. Set #1 is all FSB. I disregard grades since to me it is more important to have FSB regardless of the grade. As to the 41S, never a problem getting one. My biggest problem was the 18D and S.

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