As some of you may know by now, I'm fond of older US coins in all sorts of conditions. Morgans are my favorite, but I will buy any denomination at any time without much of a second thought from the couple of places I trust. Anyways, I have some dimes from these shops that I purchased a while back and just started to look over. I don't remember which shop I got this one Barber dime from, but that's beside the point. I'm wondering if you might be able to help me figure out the date on this poor fellow. I'm stuck on 1892-S or 1893-S. Yes, the S is there, I promise! It's incredibly hard to see on these pictures, but relatively easy to spot under the microscope. As always, any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
I am going to guess 1893. I don't know what I hate more: coins with no date or only enough to tease you.
I suppose that's the downside to picking from the cull bins. My favorite shop near me has a super cheap assorted cull selection sometimes. Like I may have actually gotten that dime for $1 (if I got it from him) and I got both my shields w/rays from him for $5 each. But thanks for your input! Looks like I'm going to have to move my microscope around the house on a sunny day and see if I have any luck with natural light and different shadow angles to get this thing figured out!
I've been wanting to try out metal detecting! A friend of mine has a house on the historical registry and I'd love to hit his yard up before he moves. Carriage house on the lot, too.
I was a very happy and content coin collector for almost forty years living out of dealer cull buckets and the like. I am all about the history that coin has seen and working coins saw just as much history as their lauded MS cousins…… I am leaning towards 1893 based on the dates proximity to the bust.
Very good catch on that! I didn't notice the small difference between the two but now that you've pointed it out, it really kind of stands out to me. Thank you!
Depending on the issue there are other die markers you can look for. I had an s mint seated quarter with no mm and they used the book and determined the mm by a small die crack on the reverse. Only there on the s mint seated quarter for that year.
