1942/1- D FSB Mercury Dime Ch/Bu - Grading Assistance

For the dime to qualify under the FB (Full Band) designation the 'center' bands (the highest peak of the reverse devices) must have both 'center' horizontal lines thoroughly separated with both being "elevated and convex (or arched), very similar in concept to a hypothetically filled-in great arch as seen in the city of St. Louis":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatew..._cropped.jpg

Both of these 'center' lines must be thoroughly intact with no evidence of discontinuity anywhere. If both of these 'center' lines display a perpendicular ding/indentation, for instance, the FB portrayal would no long apply.

The big bucks FB classification applies primarily to the 64/65 and above grades with lower mint state designations relevant to some of the lower mintage dates and varieties. Any non-MS FB specimens generally have a significantly lower premium.

I personally like to envision the FSB (full split band), on the other hand, as if the aforementioned great arch had a horizontal pedestrian bridge built across it connecting both sides about half way up; in this scenario the humped section of the arch beginning at both bridge connecting points is missing very similar to a flattop haircut:




I hope I haven't now destroyed anyone's intimate memories of their vacation tour of the arch of St. Louis by inserting some guy's haircut.

I took 'some' of this information from CoinFacts and quotes from Bill Fivaz himself made back in 2011.

It's been longer than 2 months, last visit was May of 2015. The photos provided on page 2 indicated to a few here that it wasn't the overdate.

-MV