This reminds me of Daryl Vaudt, a San Antonio coin dealer I bought a lot of coins from in the 90's. He would show me a new coin he'd bought, and I'd ask what he thought it graded. He would reply, "it grades $100."
You Suck! Awarded 6/2008- 1901-O Micro O Morgan, 8/2008- 1878 VAM-123 Morgan, 9/2022 1888-O VAM-1B3 H8 Morgan | Senior Regional Representative- ANACS Coin Grading. Posted opinions on coins are my own, and are not an official ANACS opinion.
I like that raised dot on Miss Liberty's neck. It was from a compass point used to lay out the stars in a perfect circle.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
So here's a story about a nice circulated coin in my collection. It's nothing lofty, but I love it all the same. When I first started going after a set of Mercury dimes, my goal was simply to fill an album with low grade coins. To that end, one of the first raw coins I picked up was a very worn 1921-D. This was at a stage in my collecting career when I knew very little about the finer points of coins, but I had read somewhere that as a key date, there was a chance it had been counterfeited. So I gave the coin a careful examination with a 10X loupe, and to my surprise I found a little fin of metal running between the rim and the base of Liberty's neck. What was this? Some nefarious artifact of casting?
Of course, though I didn't know it at the time, it was only a die crack. But my questions about that specific coin led me to the first stages of learning a lot more about Mercs and a lot more about coins in general.
So, when I decided to start assembling a graded set of dimes, I wanted to get another 21-D that had that same die crack. It took me a long time to find one I liked, but here it is.
What I really like about this dime (besides the die crack) is that It has the perfect medium gray color for circulated silver. The wear is remarkably even and pleasant, resulting in really attractive surfaces.
The only real drawback is a small green spot on the reverse, above the M in AMERICA. It doesn't appear to be PVC or anything active, and it isn't visible to the naked eye. I'm guessing maybe it's just a bit of residue from a spot of verdigris that was knocked off the surface.
Comments
This reminds me of Daryl Vaudt, a San Antonio coin dealer I bought a lot of coins from in the 90's. He would show me a new coin he'd bought, and I'd ask what he thought it graded. He would reply, "it grades $100."
I like that raised dot on Miss Liberty's neck. It was from a compass point used to lay out the stars in a perfect circle.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
What a great idea for a thread!
So here's a story about a nice circulated coin in my collection. It's nothing lofty, but I love it all the same. When I first started going after a set of Mercury dimes, my goal was simply to fill an album with low grade coins. To that end, one of the first raw coins I picked up was a very worn 1921-D. This was at a stage in my collecting career when I knew very little about the finer points of coins, but I had read somewhere that as a key date, there was a chance it had been counterfeited. So I gave the coin a careful examination with a 10X loupe, and to my surprise I found a little fin of metal running between the rim and the base of Liberty's neck. What was this? Some nefarious artifact of casting?
Of course, though I didn't know it at the time, it was only a die crack. But my questions about that specific coin led me to the first stages of learning a lot more about Mercs and a lot more about coins in general.
So, when I decided to start assembling a graded set of dimes, I wanted to get another 21-D that had that same die crack. It took me a long time to find one I liked, but here it is.
What I really like about this dime (besides the die crack) is that It has the perfect medium gray color for circulated silver. The wear is remarkably even and pleasant, resulting in really attractive surfaces.
The only real drawback is a small green spot on the reverse, above the M in AMERICA. It doesn't appear to be PVC or anything active, and it isn't visible to the naked eye. I'm guessing maybe it's just a bit of residue from a spot of verdigris that was knocked off the surface.