Find of the week in my house (not)

Yep, they told me my 1932 S Washington wasn't worth the price of grading, but they did offer to buy it. LOL

The problem I am seeing on the Merc, is the D appears too square. The images I have been looking at all show a taller, more rectangular D. But the coin is well worn and one has to ask why not counterfeit one in better condition. Honestly, it would be worth the gamble to send it in for grading. The potential reward is enough to warrant the risk. Hang on to it until it is a more affordable thing to do if you need to, but that is the only way you will know for sure. IMHO

 

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CoinTalkers come through!

After the 20 mile road trip to the coin show today, and after conferring with three separate dealers, the consensus is the Mercury 1916-D is genuine. None of them had any problems with it, and all would grade it as about good. Two of the three wanted to buy it from me, but I chose to keep it. Now I am wondering why the first dealer thought it was bad.

Had I not posted about this coin I would have gone about my life thinking my brother-in-law was a dork and bought a counterfeit coin, when in fact he had made a wise purchase (depending on what he paid in the '60's.). Guess I must mentally apologize to him.

Thanks to all who inspired me to give it another try with different eyes.

 

Always get second opinions. I learned that lesson after one dealer swore my Talbot, Allum & Lee wasn't genuine. Later, other dealers confirmed it was indeed genuine. I figured out later the dealer just didn't know what he was talking about when it came to early coppers.

 

And maybe 2 of the 3 dealers who wanted to buy it had no idea if it was real or not...

 

Good point. It wasn't until after I did my homework, searched Heritage archives to find a very similar specimen, did I take it to those other dealers...

 

Perhaps the dealers who made offers didn't care one way or the other. They figured they could sell it quickly at a profit ?

 

Not sure if that applied in my case... the specimen isn't as widely sought after by as many folks as a Mercury 16-D.

....It was a Talbot, Allum & Lee cent. What threw people off I think was that it was a Fuld-3 on a splotchy planchet rather than a more common Fuld-4.

 

No, not likely as sought after as the 1916 D would be. I imagine a dealer could move the Merc nearly as quick as he could lay his hands on it. The cent would only appeal to a more knowledgeable collector. But a good deal is a good deal. IMHO

The Merc might have been genuine. I hope it was, because it was a terrific find. I mean really, really great !

 

Two of the three dealers I have dealt with many times before and they are quite knowledgeable and honest. I trust their opinions and know they would not take advantage. They are both retired from their real jobs and just do shows as income supplementation.
When I told them of a couple other of my recent discoveries (a '38D MS65 Buffalo turning into a D/S, and a 1909 VDB turning into a DDO) they were quite pleased for me and really wanted to see the DDO, because neither had much experience with it.