Are rotated reverses common for 1916 Mercury dimes? I just picked this up today from the dealer who sent it in to PCGS for me and while looking at it I noticed the reverse is slightly rotated clockwise.
May have just bulk dates grading only for Full Bands. or Error may not be over 10%-15% outside limit .
If I recall correctly the 1916-D Merc comes with a slight die rotation (5-10°?). So small amounts of die rotation are not unusual.
In general, coins need a rotation of more than 90 degrees to command a premium Even then, few people collect them so they aren't worth much.
I will disagree to the last post. I submitted a 1925-D $2 1/2 that had about 30 degree rotation, it graded well, then I sold it for about double what the book value for that grade is. Your rotation is not much at all, but if it is enough to get an error label, it will be worth more
Thank you. This was the answer I was looking for. My original question was NOT is this die rotation an error or what the limits are to call it one because I really do not care for 20th Century coins that are not aligned properly or have other defects which many people classify as errors. Had I noticed this when the coin was in a 2x2 I would not have purchased it no matter how nice it is. Now that it is in a PCGS holder the slight slant to the reverse is VERY noticeable, distracting, and unappealing to me.
I used the qualifier 'in general' for a reason. 30 deg will pull a premium for gold, silver, commemoratives, but not much else.
I picked up a 1916 Merc (full bands, raw) at the Baltimore show last weekend with almost exactly the same rotation. I gather its common on Mercs.
