Mercury FB Question

they should really out a section about that in the Red Book. Also for FBL Franklin halves.


and yes, numismedia has a section for it.

Full Band Mercury dimes are an odd subject. I too am attempting to make a completed set of those. However, one amazing thing I found is you could get a FSB one in a slab that is graded as a MS-64 or -63 or less. Yet there are many slabbed Mercury dimes with a MS-67 I've seen that are not FSB's. The Red Book lists as high as MS-65 for all but nothing for a grade or price on a FSB one. They do make the statement that Dimes that are well struck and have split horrizontal bands are worth more but not by how much.
At coin shows I've seen many Mercury dimes with full Bands with complete separations and graded much less than even a MS-62. You have to remember that the grade of a Mercury dime is bassed on much more than the Bands on the reverse.
I still have about 7 more to go to make the completed set of those. Naturally the 16D is going to be the real tuff one. I know a dealer that has one in MS-62 but wants $16,000 which is a real lot more than I'd like to pay for a coin, any coin. He said he will keep it for me in case I change my mind. Just looked in my wallet and not even close to that amount.

Oddly enough a 16D with FSB's is no where near the cost of a 1945 with FSB's. I've been looking for one at lots of coin shows and even mentioning a 45 with FSB's get a little chuckel. Some dealers say they don't think there are really any out there. It seams the middle horizontal bands just never were made well in 1945. Some dealers tell me one would go for at least $40,000 or way more pending the grade. Imagine opening a roll of dimes and finding the entire roll all 45's with FSB's.


Not sure but since so few price GUIDES mess with just FSB's, I don't really think you could put one method in use to evaluate them. And even if there was, not sure you could find them for sale in the price ranges any such guide would state. I've always found it's best to just look at the reverses on Mercury dimes at coin shows and not mention I'm looking for FSB's. Always hoping to find a dealer that is unaware of the 45 FSB'd one.

FSB Mercs are a topic unto themselves as regards rarity, so you can't use any general rules regarding them. Some (like the '45) are vanishingly rare, others seem more common than non-split bands of the same year/mint. I (as usual) recommend Heritage Auctions' archive as a good guide - they have more than 40,000 Mercury sales in their database and even if you're not playing in that price level, the archive is large enough to be statistically relevant for determining price relationships in any given year.