1945 Mercury Dime With FSB

That 18 S have black carbon spotting issues, so its not a good candidate IMO.

FB or not, that's one unappealing coin.

SB, but not FSB.

By that, I mean that the bands are split, but
for fully split bands, for most definitions I have read about,
the tops of the bands need to be like the rounded tops of the old style loaves of bread, not flat.

It does not surprise me that a few others are of the opinion that say "not FSB"

In my experience SB's are relatively easy to find, and I have quite a few of them myself. I have seen only a couple of FSB's, and so far, I have not been lucky enough to find an FSB for my own collection.

Even scarcer if the obverse is fully detailed and well struck up. I think that the U.S. Mint must have used master hubs to strike a greater number of working dies during the war years than during the years 1916 to about 1935.

For an FSB, the coin needs to be struck from a fresh reverse die, and to be in an MS+ condition. That is what makes them so scarce.

I agree. You worked hard on that #1 set, no reason to skimp on the last coin.

Shows you what I know about high end Mercury dimes.

(But it is still unattractive. )

Another reminder of why I never tried an FSB Merc set.

Touche.

that was a good one !