She's pretty. My LCS has an entire collection of Mercury dimes on sale on eBay for $500. I "think" all dates are there, but not one of them are as nice as that.
I normally don't collect commemorative coins. But, I do have quite a few as I would find them at what I considered to be a very fair price, so they followed me home. This one, I didn't have, and at $13.25 I thought why not, so I did. 1952 Carver/Washington Half Dollar
I may attend the next one that's a little cooler, but we are somewhat entrenched still with the housing exchanges from Flagstaff to California. Probably the next San Diego area will be one as we all like the area to visit, but the area is a higher price for housing transfers. I do intend to reduce my duplicates of coins that my son doesn't need. Jim
Actually I am on the interior desert from San Diego. It was marked at 108 F, but another temperature here hit over 110 F for 2 hours but was decent before sundown. I have lived most of my life in the low desert and have dealt with it readily. Living in the canyon area in AZ almost froze me to death finishing up a unit with no heating yet , but I am still living well. If there is any special coin you might want , let me know. Desertgem
Ebay with their available and little control over members who want to sell a 1 cent with almost an invisible variation not worth over a second cent wants $XXXX.XX or more. I have bought tools, electronics , parts, etc. Just bought a string pulley top for my lawn mower for a fair price, and I considered it fair. If it had been $1000, seen there...I would not have been surprised or active there. Same for the COINS......ask our members FIRST, as they can usually supply extras for less. IMO, -DG.
I picked this one up for, basically, melt price. It was just too nice to leave it in the junk box. 1943 P Walking Liberty Half Dollar.
Sal, you asked this question, but I was traveling so I didn't have time or anything to help me look at it better. So, I just able to consider your question. I had also seen the "5", but I don't know what is "chatter" or what is "Doubled"? (Are those even the correct terms?). I'll describe it this way. The "5" has a "shadow effect", maybe? Also, the stars below the 5 have the same appearance, at least, to me. I cannot find any letters that have this appearance. They seem to be perfectly aligned. I've not searched extensively, but, so far I haven't found another 1866 Shield Nickel like this. I also noticed that the last "6" in the date would appear to be a little "high"? Also, possibly slightly larger than the first 6? This perhaps from being struck, slightly flattened to make it appear larger? Maybe just playing tricks with the eyes? As soon as I post this, I'm going to be trying to research this better. Thanks for looking.
I suppose we won’t know for sure, but I think the second explanation is likely. I have a friend who trained as a machinist at a Ford plant. Their sheet metal is formed (say, into a hood or fender) in stages. The earlier strikes intentionally introduce wavy shapes into the steel. Later strikes then have some shapes in the dies causing the metal to flow and stretch. The final die then has enough metal to work with to strike away all of these intermediate shapes and produce a smooth finish. If they tried to do that in one strike the metal sheet would just tear. I suspect the metalworkers at the mint knew the same thing. The intentional steps around the devices reduce the sharpness of the edges. The metal can flow into the “Longacre” shapes more easily than producing a sharp 90 degree step. This would improve the strike, reduce the required pressure, and prolong the life of the dies. I suppose we could just ask a tool and die maker, if there are any still around!