I am well versed on most denominations. Some better than others and apparently I need some serious help with my Merc dime skills. I sent a batch of coins in to ICG and most every one was dead on my estimated grade….. Except this one. It is a 42/41 that I have owned since before the turn of the century. I always had this pegged in my head a “Fine”….. It came back VG10….. I am certainly not saying the TPG is wrong. I want to know where I missed the mark. Are Mercs that finicky in grade standards?
Yes it's certainly borderline VG-10/F-12. 2 points higher and probably worth that grade, (but not more). Still an incredible coin and value difference is not a great deal (of course F 12 is better). Put a little sticky note on there that says undergraded.
It’s the sticks in the fasces. To be Fine that must be defined but the diagonal bands can be worn neatly flat. A VG coin has half of the sticks in the fasces must be there. It’s a VG-10 in my opinion. If a little more of sticks in the fasces were visible it would make a F-12 but it falls a little short. Nice looking coin though. Here’s mine do you can see the difference.
No… I would have picked that up raw in a dealers case and called Dave’s coin XF and priced it appropriately in my head.… I seriously need to get into some Mercury grading education here. Those and Buffalo nickels I seriously struggle with. Most every other denomination I can nail. I did not know I was this weak with Mercs.
Randy, they may have value-graded your coin for the line between N in UNITED and the olive branch, although I think that is mint-made. The prototypical examples provided by PCGS for grades of G4 & F15 are shown below. I think in your case you'd be right to hope for F12 and to settle for VG10.
