Mercury Dime Starter Set

At $3 per dime it's not a bad deal, especially with the semi-key dates that it includes. I'd like to be able to see the reverses just to make sure there's no major damage, but they're mostly in low-ish grades, so I'd expect that it would be approximately the same as the obverse on most of them. If you just want to put together a set, disregarding grade, it's ok...you might be able to find a good chunk of those cheaper. I can buy Mercury dimes for silver value at a couple of shops (around $1.35 each) or a little more if they're not key dates and are in low grade. Nicer ones you can often pick up from $2-5 each.

So you have to decide...is it worth it to get all of these at once for $3 each and save the hunting for them, or risk paying a little more for a few of them, but most probably paying about the same but getting equal or better quality (and you get to pick). You're still going to have to fill in a LOT of holes, and several semi-key dates...especially 21 and 21d which will be fairly expensive (even if you don't pick up the 16d which is waaay pricey).

I currently have a set that I'm working on completing that's about this condition and I'm a point where I now want to upgrade the low quality ones (most of my set) with nicer dimes. If you're going to want that eventually, you might as well start now :) All just my opinion from working on my own set in recent weeks.

I'm curious if you bought it too. Let us know!

And just breaking it down a little further...13 of them have production under (or just barely over) 10 million...I'd put a slight premium on those, even in low grade, so say you search around and find them for $4 each. That's $52 for those. The rest if you search enough you could probably get for silver value, so somewhere around $1.50 with tax...for 17 of them is $25.50...that brings the total to around $77.50 for all of them if you bought them individually. Of course this is just a complete guesstimate...you might have to pay a little more for some of those common dates and some of those 13 you might get for less or have to pay even more.

It's always nice to buy a big chunk all at once...what did you decide?

If you factor in the 26-s and album, it's probably priced about what you'd pay for them individually.

I purchased a complete set - 1916-d for $200(see my thread) on ebay. It included the 21, 21-d, 26-s and all the better dates. That is probably the easiest way to go.

bwbollom. You are correct. My intent was to say it would be "easier" to purchase a complete set(- the 16d), and pay a little more as opposed to this cheaper set that is still missing a lot of dimes. Of course you miss out on hand selecting each coin, so it depends on what you want.

Ok-I bought it. Here is my reasoning; I have a 7070 that I am working on (I realize this is a very long term project). I am also working on a morgan set. I am about 3 away from finishing my first set (Dansco-Franklins, really looking good). I thought the mercs would be fun and this set will give me a jumpstart-I still get to do the searching and having fun but dont have to start from scratch. First thing I will do is buy a different album to put them in. Thanks for your info and opinions. I will keep you updated.

jprine, I am pretty sure I have a Whitman album laying around somewhere in the mess I call a garage. If you are interested you can have it, just send me a pm and let me know where to send it and I'll go look. You bought a nice starter set, but I would encourage you to take your time and hunt out higher grade examples of the missing dates. You can often find vf/xf examples of most of the common dates in dealers bulk silver. If you belong to local coin club, see if any of the members will sell you some at silver value. Mercury dimes make a beautiful set.

Since you already purchased it I hope when you get it all the coins are about as advertised. My experiences are that many people say G-4 and it's AG-2. Maybe not that bad but many just don't know how to grade. Then too it could work in the other way. A so called dealer I know thinks all coins are G-4. I've purchased coins from him that I thought were EF-40 or better and he marks them all as G-4. Hopefully yours will all be great. Really nice starter set.