My Quest to Cherrypick a Nice 1929-S DDO Dime

Shurke · April 20, 2026 10:52AM

When I first started getting into Mercury dime varieties several years back, I made a short list of some of the better doubled dies for series (five or six of the minor ones) and set out to see if I could cherrypick them. One of the very first coins I picked was a 1929-S DDO that graded out at VF35.

It was probably silly to get it graded, but I was excited to have found it, and even now I'm quite fond that coin for what it represents as one of my earliest cherrypicks. However, as my collection evolved, I was moving from VF and XF grades towards more AU and MS grades, and I decided I'd like to have an AU specimen of the 1929-S DDO. Over the years, a couple already graded AU examples popped up for sale, but they suffered from the double whammy of being priced above guide value while also having what I felt was negative eye appeal. So I kept looking.

Then, late last year, I spotted an unattributed one on eBay in an MS64 ANACS holder. It's funny to think that I hesitated a moment before hitting the buy-it-now button because I'd been so focused on finding an AU coin, I hadn't really considered the possibility of stumbling upon an uncirculated one.

As soon as I got it in hand, I knew I liked the coin. It was without a doubt a solid, no-issues 64. There were, however, some tiny flecks of black stuff that I was 95% sure were just loosely adhered to the surfaces. I'm not much of one for crack outs, but I wanted to get that black stuff off before I sent it in to be attributed. Also, even though ANACS hadn't given the coin full bands, I liked it as FB and wanted the next batch of graders to see it with fresh eyes. So I cracked the slab and gave it an acetone bath. Apparently there had been a film of gunk on the coin I didn't even realized was there. Not only did the black stuff come off, the whole coin came out looking far more brilliant and pristine than it had before. I may have even said, "Wow!" out loud.

So I sent it off to CACG and waited. When the grades popped, I was thrilled to see it not only got the FB I wanted, it also got upgraded to 65! As far as Mercury varieties go, this one is on the scarcer side. In MS56FB, the pops are as follows -- PCGS:
3/3, NGC: 0/0, and CACG: 1/1.

So that's the story of how I went from the lowest graded 1929-S DDO to a consensus top 8 for the variety.

(P.S. I know the CACG pic doesn't look full bands, I promise it's just the angle of their lighting).