Well, sorry for the delay in my show report. Clinical hours have been busy, but now it's Friday night and instead of spending out in the bar, I'm here on cointalk! Well, sadly, the show was mainly a strike. The show was somewhat small, but they at least do it every month so that was a nice little tidbit to know! There were about 20-30 tables, so not bad for browsing, and I did get to meet Matt aka lostduchman; very personable sort of guy. However, in all the day was not productive. Don't get me wrong. It was nice browsing the booths and seeing some really cool coins; however, goal of upgrading the last 8 Mercs to VF or higher...failed. Goal of buying the last of my Franklins...failed. The dealers just didn't have them! When inquiring about VF or higher Mercs I got the "Nope. Sorry. I melted all my Mercs below BU." Dealers!? Quit melting those coins I'm after! Then upon asking for Franklins, "Nope, sorry. There's just not that much demand so I didn't bring many." I have demand! So, in all, I didn't get much. I bought two Franklins I'm after...two more to go for MS60 and higher. I found a 31D VF Merc as well. Then I just started to browse random things. I thought about starting a Lincoln set, but I didn't feel comfort in grading or judging them so I simply window shopped. However, I did find the prize to the contest as well as this little dime in the $2 dollar bin. I know the mint reworked the punch for the mint mark in 34 because of this problem, but this has to be the largest "small D" mint mark I've seen on a Merc. The "4" in the date is a little smushed as well. So, in conclusion here it is. I won't post the Halves as I'm sure people are sick of my postings of them, so enjoy Lady Liberty instead! And the 31D upgrade:
Don't think so...from my understanding the puncheon for Denver was extremely deteriorated by '34. This deterioration caused a blending of the D creating a filled effect. Unless I'm wrong, this filled effect is typically seen as the "small D." When the mint reformated the mint mark in '34 they made it wider and taller so that the blending/filled effect would be avoided for some time creating a "large D." This D also has larger/longer serifs Still, this is the largest "small D" I've seen. I may be wrong, and willing to entertain thoughts, but I think that's what is being seen above.
