The Holy Grail of Mercury Dimes
crispy
Posts: 792 ✭✭✭
I'll start this little narrative by saying that I had a very short opportunity to hunt a park yesterday as my children were having their piano lessons. It was a forty minute hunt and I scored a '64 Roosie and a '35-d Merc in a spot that I hadn't searched before. Not a bad hunt and I was pleased. I made a mental note to return at a later date. This meant the next day, of course.
I went back to the park with my oldest daughter. I brought a headphone jack splitter so she could listen in and I would explain the different sounds of an SE and what a diggable signal sounds like. Things got off to a slow start and I only found a 1918 wheatie and some iron. I explained to her that I only dig the deeper signals because time is usually limited and digging surface coins takes too much of it away from the deeper "goodies". We soon found ourselves at the end of our allotted time frame as we had an appointment to get to. I was regretting not having found at least a silver coin. Then I got a warbly signal that only was hitting from side-to-side but not in any other directions. It nulled a bit in the other directions and the one way it was hitting it would null to either side of the target. It was chirping a bit as silver will, but the cursor was displaying what would normally be a wheatie at that depth (about 6 inches). I decided to dig and see what we had. I dug the horseshoe plug and pulled it back. Then I used the X-1 probe and fished about and got the unmistakable sound of silver. I dug down a bit further and pulled some more dirt out. I scanned my hand with the probe and she sang out. It was then that I saw the edge of a silver dime. I looked at it hoping for at least a Barber. Nope, it was a Merc but I'd take that and be happy. I did the old "wet your finger and dab" method and I saw the "16" of the 1916 date. OK Joel, hold your breath and take a look at the back. Now, I have found a few 1916's in the past but never the cherished 16-d. I squinted at the reverse of the coin right where the mint mark would be. There it was... A Denver mint mark. I simply could not believe my eyes so I used a younger set of eyes to confirm this. My daughter said it was indeed what I thought it was. I explained the rarity of this find and giggled a bit like an idiot as I told her. It was now time to sit a spell and marvel at this beautiful find. Then it was time to go. Finding this with my little girl right there helping made this all the more precious of a moment.
All I can say is that I'm still stunned. I will be chasing this for years to come but I surely don't mind, I have attached pictures of the "uncleaned and as found" coin. I will post a couple more after I rinse it with some water. As is, I'd give it a F-12 grading but there is a nick on Liberty's cheek but I can live with it.
I went back to the park with my oldest daughter. I brought a headphone jack splitter so she could listen in and I would explain the different sounds of an SE and what a diggable signal sounds like. Things got off to a slow start and I only found a 1918 wheatie and some iron. I explained to her that I only dig the deeper signals because time is usually limited and digging surface coins takes too much of it away from the deeper "goodies". We soon found ourselves at the end of our allotted time frame as we had an appointment to get to. I was regretting not having found at least a silver coin. Then I got a warbly signal that only was hitting from side-to-side but not in any other directions. It nulled a bit in the other directions and the one way it was hitting it would null to either side of the target. It was chirping a bit as silver will, but the cursor was displaying what would normally be a wheatie at that depth (about 6 inches). I decided to dig and see what we had. I dug the horseshoe plug and pulled it back. Then I used the X-1 probe and fished about and got the unmistakable sound of silver. I dug down a bit further and pulled some more dirt out. I scanned my hand with the probe and she sang out. It was then that I saw the edge of a silver dime. I looked at it hoping for at least a Barber. Nope, it was a Merc but I'd take that and be happy. I did the old "wet your finger and dab" method and I saw the "16" of the 1916 date. OK Joel, hold your breath and take a look at the back. Now, I have found a few 1916's in the past but never the cherished 16-d. I squinted at the reverse of the coin right where the mint mark would be. There it was... A Denver mint mark. I simply could not believe my eyes so I used a younger set of eyes to confirm this. My daughter said it was indeed what I thought it was. I explained the rarity of this find and giggled a bit like an idiot as I told her. It was now time to sit a spell and marvel at this beautiful find. Then it was time to go. Finding this with my little girl right there helping made this all the more precious of a moment.
All I can say is that I'm still stunned. I will be chasing this for years to come but I surely don't mind, I have attached pictures of the "uncleaned and as found" coin. I will post a couple more after I rinse it with some water. As is, I'd give it a F-12 grading but there is a nick on Liberty's cheek but I can live with it.
"to you, a hero is some kind of weird sandwich..."
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Comments
F12 details looks about right. Nice score!
"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle."
--- Carl Sagan (b. 9 November 1934--d. 20 December 1996)
That is a fantastic find.
My very first silver was a 1939 Merc . It was also my last silver find. LOL
Congrats on the '16 D
100% Positive BST transactions
edited for typo
Lafayette Grading Set
At the very least, the PCGS would grade it as "genuine" ... wow, now that's how you pay for your detector!
RFLOL !
Great find and great story! Any plans on sending it in for grading or keepin' it raw?
I think it would be a shame to have some glossy, oily look or worse.
Authenticated and left alone would be nice, IMO.