Can you recognize an S mint coin w/o seeing MM?
barbershopper
Posts: 1,201
49 years ago, in 1959, I convinced a bank to sell me 1 bag of dimes
or 2 bags of nickels 5 times a week based on the promise
to do all my banking with them when I started selling the coins I was keeping.
These all came from the bus co. and parking meters.
They went along with this for 3 months, keeping track of the ones I'd seen so I didn't get
the same ones twice. After 3 months, they weren't seeing any money being added
to my account and began telling me they didn't have any I hadn't looked at.
This went on for a couple of weeks and I finally gave it up.
I was getting a little tired of it anyway. My social life was zilch.
Anyway, at some point I realized all the S mint coins had a certain look to them
if they had mint luster. This was the same for both silver and nickel.
It's difficult to describe but there was a sort of sheen on the S mints.
I guess I've lost the ability to tell the difference after so many years.
I had found nearly 3 rolls of 1939-D and 1 roll of 1950-D nickels.
The other key dates were in proportion to those numbers.
I sold the Jefferson nickels to one man but kept the buffalo nickels and Mercury dimes.
I made good money when I sold them and still have the buffs & Mercs.
Has anyone else ever noticed this? Or maybe there isn't the difference now as there was then.
JET
or 2 bags of nickels 5 times a week based on the promise
to do all my banking with them when I started selling the coins I was keeping.
These all came from the bus co. and parking meters.
They went along with this for 3 months, keeping track of the ones I'd seen so I didn't get
the same ones twice. After 3 months, they weren't seeing any money being added
to my account and began telling me they didn't have any I hadn't looked at.
This went on for a couple of weeks and I finally gave it up.
I was getting a little tired of it anyway. My social life was zilch.
Anyway, at some point I realized all the S mint coins had a certain look to them
if they had mint luster. This was the same for both silver and nickel.
It's difficult to describe but there was a sort of sheen on the S mints.
I guess I've lost the ability to tell the difference after so many years.
I had found nearly 3 rolls of 1939-D and 1 roll of 1950-D nickels.
The other key dates were in proportion to those numbers.
I sold the Jefferson nickels to one man but kept the buffalo nickels and Mercury dimes.
I made good money when I sold them and still have the buffs & Mercs.
Has anyone else ever noticed this? Or maybe there isn't the difference now as there was then.
JET
It is health that is real wealth, not pieces of gold and silver. Gandhi.
I collect all 20th century series except gold including those series that ended there.
I collect all 20th century series except gold including those series that ended there.
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Comments
<< <i>I've heard people say they can tell the mint on Morgans by looking at the front only. Maybe they can for certain VAMs, but I've never witnessed it done. For the most part, I think it is typical coin guy talk (i.e b.s.).
Actually, this can be a true statement IF the individual in question knows enough about that specific issue. For example, the typical O-mint strike and luster will differ from that of an 1882-CC. Because of this, it is actually sometimes possible to look at the obverse of a Morgan dollar and determine what mint it probably came from. I have witnessed this more than once.
For example, I once had a supposed 1894-P $1 brought to our bourse table which had an obverse that looked very similar to an 1894-O. We noticed that the obverse appeared like that of an O-mint rather than a P-mint. We later determined that the "O" mintmark had been removed from the coin, and the mintmark area had then been tooled to hide this.
I can sometimes tell an S-mint dime and other S-mint coins like a Booker based sheerly on the strength of the luster.
<< <i>Yes, to a degree. San Francisco silver dollars have a 'look' to the luster. >>
Especially the early dates (in Mint State grades). After you've looked at a LOT of Morgans this become fairly distinctive... just as the O's and CCs do, which means that through the process of elimination the P-mint coins tend to stand out as well.
This doesn't work with all coins, of course, and toning makes it more difficult.
<< <i>I've heard people say they can tell the mint on Morgans by looking at the front only. Maybe they can for certain VAMs, but I've never witnessed it done. For the most part, I think it is typical coin guy talk (i.e b.s.).
Aside from seeing certain VAM diagnostics, the look of certain coins is occasionally different from that of coins of the other mints in the same year. Issues for which this tends to be true include 1880-S, 1881-S, 1887-O, 1889, 1890-O, 1891-O, 1892-O, 1896-O, 1897-O, 1901, and 1921-S. This, of course, assumes you're looking at coins that are mint state.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
<< <i>Harry Forman once told me that Walter Breen could tell the date of a large cent just by looking at the reverse. >>
<< <i>Yes, to a degree. San Francisco silver dollars have a 'look' to the luster. >>
agreed.....with regards to Morgans I can almost always pick out the S-mints.....I have never tried with the other mints but the early S-mint pop on the 1878-1882-S coins is unmistakable