Mercury's *Raw* From An Auction.. Guess How They Were Graded

I purchased (10) Mercury Dimes.. (5) 19-S + (5) 19-D from an auction house this week. Its been brought to my attention that auctions often over grade coins to bring in additional money from people unfamiliar with grading etc.

I pulled out (3) that I liked the most please state a grade for the following..

1919-S: Grade
1919-S: Grade
1919-D: Grade

The first coin the reverse actually looks better in person, I should probably re-take the picture since the bands are more defined.

I'll post the grades tomorrow

 

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Ef-40
Vf-20
Vf-30
Probably way off but trying to practice

 

If the auction house is overgrading, those grades sound good to me.

 

[quoagreehigh96, post: 1801326, member: 15309"]If the auction house is overgrading, those grades sound good to me.[/quote]
You agreeing that I'm way off

 

I'm not sure, are those your grades or what you thought the auction house graded the coins?

 

Kinda what I thought but still learning grading and make a lot of grading errors

 

What reference are you using to grade these Mercury Dimes? Whenever there is loss of definition of the vertical lines of the fasces and the diagonal bands are incomplete, the coin drops in the F range.

 

Ok got it like I said still trying to learn

 

Here is what I used

 

imo with an luck the
1919S- might be an AU50 it looks pretty good
1919S - would be a F12
1919 D might be a VF-20

 

i think this is a little better picture of the reverse for the first coin

 

When are you going to reveal the real grades of them

 

1919-S: VF
1919-S: VG
1919-D: VG

 

Wow I was way off

 

Agreed. To much wear on the horizontal lines to be graded as XF. VF is the highest grade I would assign.

Like the OP, I have just started this hobby recently and have buried myself with tons of information to improve my eye when grading Mercury dimes. Like many CTer's have suggested to me, I would suggest you buy the book before the coin.

I have attended a couple of coin shows to understand how others see and grade coins and just to have some exposure to more varieties of coins. I also watch a lot of online auctions, where I find most coins are over graded, just to gain some additional exposure. I would suggest you try to do the same.

To the OP, keep up the good work and keep at it. I know it feels like you will never get it at first, but keep at it and it will come together.

 

1919- P Ef
1919- D Vf 15
1919- S F 12

 

Zach

So, what did they grade them?

 

ah, found the grades.