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What are the hardest S mint dimes from the 1860's
I'm guessing the mintage's of these coins do not tell the story.
These coins seem to always be very beat up.
These coins seem to always be very beat up.
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Tome the hardest S mint from the 60's is the 62-S, 63-S and 60-S in that order.
JMHO
1) 1866-s
2) 1867-s
3) 1861-s
4) 1862-s
5) 1865-s
6) 1863-s
7) 1860-s
8) 1864-s
9) 1868-s
10) 1869-s
Of course, I don't avidly pursue the dimes, so someone else may rank them differently.
I rank the 66-s at the top and then the 61-s and 62-s in basically a tie. In my mind there's not a ton of difference between them and there are plenty to go around
to complete date sets. If there are only say 50 or 100 collectors building seated dime sets by date, does it really matter a whole lot if there are 250 specimens available,
or 350, or even 500? When considering only problem free, fully original VF-XF specimens then it becames many levels more difficult. In unc the 65-s and 62-s are probably the
two toughest with the 61-s, 64-s and 63-s fighting for the next 3 slots.
I guess I should have stated that coins in PCGS slabs is what I was basing my statements on.
The 1862-S was the hardest for me to find followed by the 63-S.
I cant even find nice ones in VF
<< <i>You make it sound like the 66 or 67-S coins can be lying around with hundreds of excess.
I cant even find nice ones in VF >>
Most of those hundreds of coins are in collector/speculator hands with the rest scattered around the country in dealer inventories.
Not surprised you can't find nice ones in VF. I specifically stated that problem free VF-XF coins are a whole different issue....just like finding uncs.
I would agree that the 67-s is a toughie and typically unappreciated as all 1867-s coinage is/was. That was always my favorite year set as back in
the early 1980's I felt it was the most underrated S mint set in Gem unc. I went out to build a gem unc set and had the quarter and half dime by 1988.
But there were no dimes or halves coming to market so I gave up on the set, but kept the quarter until 2004. That now resides in the world's finest gem
unc seated collection. The majority of these S mint dimes are in lower grades (AG-Fine) and typically have problems. Most have been cleaned. An uncleaned
and undamaged VF-XF set of any S mint seated coinage is quite an undertaking. There are hundreds of 66-s and 67-s dimes out there...maybe 250-400.
One also has to ignore the pop reports when it comes to anything but key dates. Far more 1885-s or 1860-0 dimes will get submitted for grading/authentication than
say 66-s or 67-s dimes. To really find out the availability one has to scan auctions, dealer price lists, and other sources over the past 30-50 years. Heritage auction
archives is a reasonable first guess, but even their data base is better suited for uncs than circs. Most collectors of circ seated still don't see a need to send their coins in
for grading. They know what they got...and may not want others to know it. And for the most part the next guy will buy it raw as well knowing what they're getting. EACers
don't rely or depend on slabs and neither do long time LSCCers.
The P mints of 1863-1869 are much harder than the S mints of the same years, especially in Good-XF. But those P mints also have hundreds of proofs (some circulated)
as well as dozens of uncs and slider uncs to choose from. That's not the case for the S mints where the number of coins drops off the map as you get above XF. Hence
the "charm" of S mint seated coinage and why I have always prefered them over the lower mintage 1860's and 1870's Philly dates. No proofs and few uncs to cloud the issue.