Did you ever wonder how far a coin has traveled or who may have carried it? Check this out: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1939-mercury-dime-/221355853511?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item3389d646c7 TC
I guess it's possible the seller wrote the provenance but he isn't using it in the listing. But who is Bob?
True that. I am not saying it adds any value to it though, and the seller is not saying it was carried in Vietnam. It just makes me wonder about the travels that some coins have made.
I saw someone selling a $5 Indian head gold coin a while back that, "was given to my grandfather by ELVIS PRESLEY!" He had a letter he was selling with the coin, NOT written by Elvis. He was asking like $5000.
That's part of the allure of ancients. Never mind Mercury dimes - imagine holding coins that were spent by soldiers in the armies of Antony and Cleopatra...
This is the kind of coin stuff I LOVE. Unfortunately it's not my own story or anyone I personally know, so I kind of have to go with anyone can write anything on a coin flip.
Gus Grissom smuggled two roles of Mercury dimes into space: http://history.nasa.gov/40thmerc7/grissom.htm http://voices.yahoo.com/are-astronaut-gus-grissoms-lost-mercury-dimes-actually-427024.html?cat=37
Gary Powers carried a box dollar on his wayward flights over the USSR. It had a poison needle in it that he was suppose to to use to croak himself if he ever went down over the USSR.