Thank you everyone. I bought the coin as a F-VF and paid $40 plus $5 shipping. The 26-S is usually found weakly struck no matter what condition. I didn't like that obvious nick on the obverse. I love the reverse design on the Mercury dime and that's why I started collecting them years ago. This one was just a tad better than the best one I had in my collection. VF-30 to EF are quite pricey. There's a lot of people on ebay selling overgraded 26-S mercs, here's an example of a cleaned one, compare the reverse of this coin with mine, then compare the price! http://cgi.ebay.com/1926-S-Mercury-...EF_W0QQitemZ360023737320QQihZ023QQcategoryZ41091QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
mr merc, I don't believe that the ebay example that you listed is cleaned. I have seen that seller post many scans(not digital photos) for his auction pics. Scanning coins tends to produce a washed-out almost cleaned look because luster does not show up. However, I do agree that his coin is overgraded and too expensive. The seller is known for having decent, but overpriced coins.
If you purchased yours for $45 I am jealous It has an awesome original look and I think it is a much nicer example than the ebay coin and I would love to own it in my collection. Too bad it didnt have just a bit less wear or you would have a real gem on your hands
The reason I think the coin was cleaned is because of the date, look especially inside the loop of the 9, also the 2, it doesn't match the rest of the surfaces. It's highly unlikely that a coin that is 118 years old that saw as much circulation as this one did would look this way,like a shiny new dime LOL. I think it was dipped. JMO from what I see, and of course I could be wrong, but I don't think so.
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