1926-S Mercury Dime - Opinions On Originality And Grade/Value

VF-35

Thanks for the additional thoughts on this one. I'm not necessarily surprised that it seems as many say VF-35 as XF-40. I've been looking at XF-40 (and VF-35) PCGS graded coins and they really do vary quite a lot:

https://www.PCGS.com/auctionprices/...ms/4958/4959

For instance, I can't say this one is a higher grade than the coin I just bought (and it has a CAC sticker!):
https://coins.ha.com/itm/mercury-di...Lot=1x=0&y=0

...and there are a number of others like this too.

Of course, "buy the coin not the holder" (and in this case my coin isn't even in a holder!). The below image is from The Complete Guide to Mercury Dimes (2nd edition) by David Lange. It does appear this reference holds the XF-40 to a higher standard compared to PCGS (at least consistently for the 1926-S specimens that one can peruse in the first link above).

I'm very interested to hear what criteria others use for discerning the difference between a VF-35 and an XF-40.




BH1964 - regarding my comment on the potential shill bidding of Great Southern, what I meant was that these folks sell a LOT of coins, and if they consistently shill bid, then they would have to "win" at least some of these auctions, and if that were the case, then they'd have to squirrel away the coins they won or else folks would keep seeing the same coins for sale. I mean how could they shill bid and just always "push the hammer price to higher levels" w/o sometimes actually winning their own auctions. See what I mean?

VF-30 or 35 sounds about right. Tough date for sure!