The 1866-S is a tough coin in MS and few come up for sell. PCGS called it MS. The value on these has really changed over the past 20 years and I'm not really sure why. Would love to know why that happened. Any thoughts would be cool.
If the value has adjusted over the last two decades then the TPG population services might have highlighted how difficult the finest coins are to obtain for the issue. I have always stayed away from coins like this that generally have weak mintmarks, but that is just a personal preference.
It looks like a solid 63 plus to me, lots of eye appeal. Technical grading is like theoretical studies, a lot more relevant to the classroom than to real life.
Looking at what I can find there are less than 20 of this date/mint dimes graded MS anything, and only about 60 in any grade (NGC & PCGS combined). I believe Tom is saying the same thing, the pop numbers of all graded examples exemplify the scarcity of the coin. That said, based on Heritage records, the value of them hasn't changed much if any in almost 10 years.
Thanks guys. PCGS gave it a 62 back in 2006. I bought it from David Bowers in 1996 for $465. Not sure I even looked at the pops or what I was using as a price guide at the time. I think I did ok with this one.
