New Joshua Mercury Dime Set

Mark

Has anyone taken a gander at the new #1 all time and current Mercury dime set? It's got some truly stunning high grade coins. What strikes me as almost as stunning is the comment that the set was put together in 18 months. It is amazing to me to see how how quickly a large wallet can collect the finest graded coins! I wonder who was (were) the dealer(s) working with this collector?

Mark

quattrocoins

I was amazed by the same statement, Mark.
Here I've been working for over 30 years on my set!
Must be one gorgeous set to see!

BTW - I told you that I was going to try your strategy. I started a
set for my dogs. This way the wife can kill six birds with one stone!!! LOL!
Not bad @ #7!!!
I hope that they stay "heeled" right behind me!

Regards,

Don

MS68FB Winged Liberty and

python1

Very nice set.... I am dreaming now....(of winning the lottery!)

tggr

That is a set that would be hard to beat for the normal working stiff. LOL
A great set.

Ray

Joshua

Sorry this took a couple of days to answer but I just joined the forum and this is my first message. I was luckly enough to put my 1st set together in about three years and was able to sell it for a good profit.
But after I sold it, I wanted to rebuild it better than the first. I was
able to use several good dealers - in no particular order: Robert Hughes
(Spectrum now), Doug Winter, Mark Feld (Pinnacle), Bill Dominick (Westwood), Laura Sperber (Legend), Mike Printz (Whitlow),Dave Albanese, every auction I could find, and probably more important Greg Rohan and Paul Simonetti at Heritage. I was able to buy and sell through Heritage auctions and kept upgrading whenever possible. My 1918-D, 1916, 1945-D (and several others) were all upgraded from when I bought them. At certain times I sold coins that I wish I had kept but the prices were too good to pass by. At one time I had all the 1925 P,D,S in pop 1 but sold them to buy other coins. I sold my 1939-D in MS69FB because the price was right. Anyway if there is any help I can give Mercury collectors please let me know.

tggr

Hi Joshua,
Welcome to the Merc group.We all have fun here.


Ray

Mark

Joshua:

Any chance you'll be adding pictures to your set? I, for one, would love to enjoy your coins!

Also, I just noticed that you have some Dominick and Kritzman pedigreed coins but no Joshua (I) coins. Did you deliberately make it harder on yourself by looking for all "new" coins or is that just the way it turned out?

Mark

python1

Hi Joshua,
Welcome to the best group of collectors on the block.IMHO. We are having a blast helping each other with encouragment and moral support. It is a great forum, sometimes a little heated, but when it comes right down to it, we are all great collectors at heart. Again, welcome and we all hope that you hang here with us!
By the way, that is a great set you have, congrats!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm still hoping for a 16d in 60-62, one of these days.....

Joshua

I have a couple of coins from the first set but I kept them with pictures of my set. Heritage when they auctioned it off gave me a framed poster of the set so I kept a couple with it. The first set also
didn't have a pedigree on them - didn't know that much about pedigrees then. Thought only Pittman or Eliasberg could get them. So as a result they are very hard to track down unless you bought them at the sale.
A friend's wife is going to take pictures of the whole set for me in April and then I'll post pictures. The last three dimes that I got where from the Kritzman sale at FUN a couple of weeks ago. The 20-s is one of the finest dimes I have ever seen. I needed those dimes to pass Bill Dominick's collection. He was sitting next to me and was very happy that I passed his set. His help in locating and grading merc's was priceless.

Fairlaneman

Joshua: Welcome. Being a Collector of Mercury Dimes only it was a absolute pleasure to view your Dime collection. When the 20S sold in the Heritage Auction I was wondering if I would ever be able to view it again,now the answer is yes. I think the 20S was the most Beautiful Mercury Dime I have ever seen. Again Welcome and Please join us from time to time here on the Forumn. "Adolphs Little Lady Rules": Ken

oreville

Very pleasant reading the various comments between Joshua and the other members of this room.

I went through the same thing selling my mint state (called Gem BU back then) medium walker set (1934-1947) in auction in the early 1980's. It broke my heart even though my bank account was happy. Indeed, I am slowly rebuilding such set back again interrupted numerous times because there are so many other things to do and see including the great mercury dime series collecting of which I am indeed a participant of as well.

Some comments: I have noticed how the FB 1916-D dime has slowly eroded in the eyes of collectors over the past 5 years as the Queen of the set. In mint state is is in fact more common in many FB mint state grades. It appears to be taking the road of the 1921 and 1921-D walkers at one time undisputed Uncirculated kings of the walker set and then dethroned by the BU and then mint state 1919-D and 1921-S over the last 40 years. A parallel here? I see furthermore, the 1945-P mercury dime in MS-67 FB one day contending for #1 for the series along with the 1918-D 1919-D and a couple of dates in the 20's if no more are found. Comments?

Fairlaneman

oreville: In the eyes of many collectors the 16D is still king. Since it was recognized as a Rarity early on it will probably hold its high esteem to collectors that do not specialize in Mercury Dimes. The 18D,18S,and 45P as you stated IMO are much harder to find(If You Can)than the 16D. Population reports will also attest to this. The Flaw to the PoP reports may be, people have more than likely submitted the 16D over and over just trying for that 1 more point that could amount to thousands of dollars. My favorite hard dates,beside the 3 you mentioned,include 23S,24S,25D,25S and the one I call King 1927S. The traditional Keys 16D,21P,21D and 26S seem to always be available for a price. Take Care: Ken

Joshua

oreville, ken: While the 16-D isn't quite as rare in numbers as some others it still is the Queen of the set. I know the numbers in 66 and 67 are overinflated - probably by about 50%. However, since it is the first year of issue, I think several high grade type sets have the 16-d in them. Toughest date was the 19-d until the Bassano one sold for over $ 200,000 in Philly. Now that was one of the best auctions ever for mercs. seeing Whitlow and Gloria Dominick just keep slugging along was priceless. But look now and their are 4 (actually I think another was made at FUN) in 66 and only 10 in 65. probably now the 18-D, 23-S, 24-S and 20-S are the toughest. All of the 25 are the hardest to find nice. Another late sleeper is the 35-D. I never could get one in 67 for my first set. I do hope the 45-P doesn't become the Queen. Hate to see a common date become rare because of the strike. I agree that the walkers are similiar - but so are the lincolns. Look at the 14-d and s.
Not as rare as everyone thinks. That's what the pop report has done.

Fairlaneman

Joshua: All of the 25's including the 25P ? If so this confirms my opinion that the 25P is a very under rated coin within the series. For a period I would buy everyone I saw and still did not come up with a real decent one. Seems they all had weak obverse strikes and die polish. The Mint was getting thier moneys worth with the dies in 1925. Take Care: Ken

Joshua

ken: Just look at the pop report - in high grades the 25 is one of the hardest to find. And if you get any 25 with a strong full date (d and s too) grab them up. And you're right about the 27-s - very tough to find - very underrated. And don't forget the 27-d - its a little tougher than 27-s. This is what I find interesting - spotting the coins that are far rarer than people think. take care - joshua

oreville

Some ramblings:

Joshua: About 5 years ago, I had the chance to acquire the same 1916-D MS67 FB merc dime that Dominick was able to purchase from Parrino bur was not able to match them price wise and ended up obtaining an NGC 16-D MS67 FB dime instead which in my view, was not as close to a near MS68 as the Dominick coin but yet had superior eye appeal since not as dark and instead had lovely hues of light golden toning. Those were the days when NGC was indeed as tough as PCGS in their grading of FB dimes.

At that time the pop reports were much more accurate than they are now and believe me when I say that the 1945-P which I also acquired in MS-67 FB that year will some day give the 1916-D dime a run for its money in MS67 FB. Lets hope I am wrong, but I don't think so.

I do agree with your assessment about the raritiy of the other dates. Yes indeed,, the 1935-D is an incredible date as well.

But yes, I also picked up one of the Kritzman coin as well, the 1945-S micro-s dime but agree that your Kritzman 1920-S is head over heels over the Kritzman 45-S micro s and just about all of his other coins. I personally feel the 45-S micro s barely made it into 67 but I needed it and the last micro s dime (of course you wouldn't know who that was :-)) went for too much money as it blew me out of the water, as it was indeed a nicer coin. Maybe someday.

I am not doing a complete sets of merc as I can't afford to. But I did want some of the great classics as part of a type set that I am working on.

I personally called Bassano when he sold his merc set and would not be surprised he too someday tries to get back in as well. LOL.

Joshua

oreville: I'm pretty sure the Parrino/Dominick 16-D is the one in my set. It was bought by a crack-out dealer when it was sold from his collection. I'll guess its been back to PCGS about 10 times trying to get it into a 68. I've been told by everyone that one day it will so I'll keep trying.
The 45-P from Dominick's was one of the coins that I wish I could have gotten but by the time it came up I'd bought too many coins as it was. I do believe the Bassano 45-P eventually got into a 67. Is their one more out there in 67FB?
There is a micro PCGS 68FB in the upcoming Long beach auction.
I wouldn't doubt Bassano would try something again - he made such a splash with his dimes that if it happened once why not again. LOL

oreville

How do I send emails to individuals in general on these threads?

Mine is oreville@yahoo.com

oreville

Copy of my comment regarding the scarcity of 1945-P dimes in FB as shown on another thread:

Keep in mind what the 1945 year was like...the war in Europe ended in early 1945....soldiers coming back to the East Coast.....Philadelphia as well as other East Coast cities were swarmed with people, the economy was in really high gear (the stongest economy since 1928) the Mint simply could not keep up with demand, the dime was the workhorse of our coins & currency just like our dollars are today (the values were somewhat similar...one dime then worth about between $1 to $2 today).

Keep in mind that the war in Asia was still going on and the demand for Denver and San Francisco issues was not as great until the autumn but then listen to the following fact that also occured........

In April 1945, FDR passed away and immediately all in power (Truman on down) wanted to honor FDR on the "march of dimes" as a tribute to FDR and his non-public fight with polio (remember polio vaccine was not discovered until the 1950's) so once the word got out by early May 1945 in the US Mint in Philadelpia that there was going to be a new Roosevelt dime (heck there wasn't even a new design yet!!!) the US Mint personnel, in my opinion just decided to forego trying to rehabilitate the reverse of the 1945 merc dimes as it was no longer going to be used the following year.
They had enough problems in addition in keep up with demand for the cents, nickels and quarters.

This last paragraph states the most important factor of all in my view.

grip

Joshua
Open up your PM.Great reading and thanks for all the input.Luv It.Al