I recently found out that there are numerous 1939-D MS69 Mercury dimes (more than I expected), so I hopped over to PCGS CoinFacts to see these amazing MS69 FB 1939-D Mercuries, and noticed a trend. When you scroll down looking at the pictures, I saw that about one in every two coins pictured from MS67 to MS69 grades have a cool rainbow stripe tone pattern on the obverse, and usually no toning or full rainbow toning on the reverse. The bands of bright white untoned luster are all about the same size, and I was very confused about this. Is there a person collecting PQ 1939-D Mercury dimes with that specific toning and sending them all in to PCGS to grade? Is someone buying high grade Mercury dimes and cooking up the toning and sending them all to PCGS for grading? The only reason this type of toning could naturally appear would be if someone had hoarded an album full of super gem grade '39-D that were kept there with a plastic strip going across and covered with some paper. If you know why so many of these Mercury dimes have this toning, please tell me.
I think you are reading too much into this. The 39-D had a pretty high mintage near 25 million and Denver dimes were being hoarded in the 30's so their are a ton of extant mint state rolls for this date/mm. And they really don't have a look that indicates to me that they are AT or similar to each other. When I think of a suspicious group of toned Mercury Dimes, I immediately think of the 1945-S with banded toning on the reverse that frame the untoned fasces. For example: I hesitate to call either group of these Mercury Dimes AT or even QT, but I know that I would not personally want to own one of those 45-S coins while I would love to own a toned MS69 39-D.
Ive owned a 45 S Merc, NGC ms67 (no star) With that exact same pattern on the reverse and i actually wondered why it didnt get a star. It was Rainbow toned & nice on both fasces (get it) i think you may possibly be onto something @Lehigh96
The only thing I know about these Mercs. is that I like em! Especially that seventh one. That has to be absolutely dazzling in natural light.
add me to the list of someone who owned a 45-S with that exact reverse and now paddy owns it. weird why that is
I read an article where someone found a hoard of BU Mercury dimes in 1940’s dime boards. These were stored in a bank in Colorado (hence most of these are D mint), and the arid climate and the sulfur-rich cardboard contributed to rich toning. Since all were directly transferred from rolls to these boards, all were pristine, and a very significant number of them graded MS-69. The issues involved were 1939 D, 1940 D, and 1941 D iirc. When the hoard was first submitted, all came back AT. Then they were resubmitted with the coin board. And they all received straight grades.