Liberty 1912-S Mintage And Value

My personal opinion is that the 16-D dime, 1877 cent, as well as the majority of the Lincoln and Morgan keys are crazy expensive compared to their mintages. Especially when compared to keys in some of the other sets.

Just as a for instance... take the 95-O dime. I'm willing to bet that from a survivability standpoint its more scarce than the 16D. You can usually find 2 or 3 auctions running for the 16D for every one you find of the 95-O. And yet the 16D will cost you about 3x as much in the lower grades and 2x as much in the higher grades.

Or take the 1915 Barber Half. With a mintage of 138k you can pick up an uncirculated example for about the same price as a VG 16D.

I suppose I can understand the Morgans as with the numerous melts it would be hard to put an actual figure on mintages vs survivability. I'm sure its because there are tons of lincoln and mercury collectors vs some of the other sets, but still... I'd be hard pressed to slap down the money to buy an EF 16D when I could pick up a twenty year date run (1888-1907) of quarter eagles in the same condition for less money. And only 1 of those has a mintage more than the 16-D, some have mintages of under 10k.

Exactly jbuck, I own a VF 1885 Seated Half - Mintage: 5,200 Bus. strikes! Now why isn't that coin with 258,800 less mintage over the 16-D, off the hook on it's price. On a percentage basis, this coin would be worth tons more than any VF 16-D. It's definitely popularity of issue. You can't compare the popularity of the Mercury dime series and the Seated Half series. It's that simple I believe.

Go to ebay, go to Seated half dollars. Type in 1885 in search. Then type 1916-D in Mercury dimes see what you get. Seems like for every 1 1885 SLH, you probably have 50 16-D Mercs! It's amazing.

If anything it makes me wonder about the logic of buying these super keys as investment pieces as I think the rationale behind the run up in prices is flawed. Over the last couple of years it seems like more coins are becoming "investment" pieces... such as the 1921 dimes... but then again I'm wondering what the underlying reason is for these run ups.

Why does a 21D now run $125 in VG? It has a mintage of just over a million, if you take a dime that's 6 years older from San Francisco that has a mintage of under a million you can pick up 10 for the same money in the same grade. Are there REALLY that many more Mercury collectors than Barber collectors? And if there are, why are there more? Is it because this hobby is comprised mostly of 70ish year old collectors who remember when the coin was in circulation? I don't buy it. Judging by the average age of those that have posted their pics here, and by the age of collectors I see in stores I think the average collector is well under 70. So to me it can't be a fondness sort of thing.

Does anyone know about survivability of the 16D Merc dime versus the 12S Liberty nickel?

In my opinion, I would think that the 16D has survived less due to potential silver melting through the years, so that could play a role in its much higher value than 12S V nickel. Nickel melting either doesn't occur much or it occurs at very low levels.

Personally, I like the V nickels more than the dimes. It's a little bigger and more of the coin can be seen with the naked eye.
I don't have a single dime in my collection yet, but may get the 16-D if the price is right.

I hear this a lot, but... is it even true? I know that the 16D is one of the coins that investment groups target, which I would almost suspect has more of an affect on it's demand than collector interest.

My personal opinion here is that the super keys are super keys due to a sort of self fulfilling prophecy. That their value IS tied up by demand but that demand is based upon a false assumption of scarcity.