1916-D Merc Hmmmm

Just saw this on e-bay.

Interesting. The seller says a genuine 1916-D mercury that has 2 holes in it and some collateral damage. But the date and mint mark are clear.

As I post this, it's at just a bit over $50 with 5 hours left.

Honestly, if it's genuine, I think it's a STEAL at $50, but of course, it'll go up way big time by the end of the auction.

If we ASSUME that it is REAL, what would be a fair price for such a coin?

And please, if all you have to say is "yech" or "I would never buy such a coin", that's not really what I'm looking for.

There are a lot of buyers out there for such coins. For those people who have to fill holes in their albums, there are some who would prefer a damaged REAL key date rather than a replica or substituting another date in that slot.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...82%09&_sacat=See-All-Categories&_fvi=1&_rdc=1

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Wow. That could complete a Dansco for me.....I wonder if it is authentic?

 

I know the seller and do business with him at coin shows fairly frequently. I also believe him to be among the the most knowledgeable, nicest and honest dealers there is. The coin is of no interest to me personally, and I would definitely avoid such a piece if an unknown seller had it listed for sale. However, in this case, I would have full confidence that the coin is a genuine 1916-D Dime.

 

This would make a nice addition to my low grade collection. I think it would compliment this 1857 Liberty seated dime nicely (bought it for a buck with some other silver). I think the '16-D may be a little pricey at $50+; I would pay about $35 for it.

 

Looks more like a squished S to me but it could be a D. :kewl: Since I cannot tell for sure it's a D, I wouldn't bid. :whistle:

Ribbit

 

I'm not sure what its worth. But I'd buy it for $50 to fill the hole in my album.

 

I saw that while looking for holed coins.

I don't think I would buy it as a hole filler - 2 holes is 1 hole too much. lol

 

Sold for a tad over $77 not bad for a '16-D , THE COIN HAS SOME CLASS , survived not just one bullet but two .
rzage

 

Looks like a D to me .:secret::thumb:
rzage

 

lol:d

 

I wouldn't have bid on it personally

 

I think it is neat and wouldn't have minded it in my collection. I didn't bid. I plan on picking up a nice slabbed undamaged AG3 example or so down the road. But, for $77...you really can't go wrong.

 

I called the seller and he said they paid $100 for it. Told him Mark Feld recommended him. He assured me it was authentic. I bid on it and was ready to go up to $80 but held back until later. Then I got busy and when I checked again, I was outbid and it went for $77 (I had bid 67). Bummer. I could have completed my Merc collection for 77 bucks! I blew it.

 

I've always wanted a 16 D since the Mercs were my favorite coin as a kid. This coin has so many problems I don't think it would satisfy my yearning to complete my set of Mercs. I think I'll wait for a better coin sometime in the future.

Bruce

 

What is the purpose for putting holes in these coins? Jewelry? Regular damage?

 

If it were authentic, the seller would have paid at least $300-$400 for it. I think the seller who sold the dime to the person who was selling it on ebay was duped into buying a counterfeit coin and the person selling it on ebay was deceived by the person he bought it from. The coin looked like it was in fair condition, the next grade up is AG-3, which a real 1916-D mercury dime sells for $900. Another thing, silver coins in good to fair condition don't tarnish as they wear down, any tarnish it would have had would have warn away with the coins, so it would have had more of a grey tone with little, if any detail, and on top of that, as I was looking at the metal where the holes are, and it seems to be shreading alittle too much for it to be a silver coin, so because of that, the price the seller who was selling the coin on ebay purchased it for, and good reference about the seller, the only conclusion I can come to is that the coin was made of lead, the seller who sold the coin to the person who sold it on ebay is a snake, and the person selling it on ebay is a novice. I know that sounds harsh, but if you want me to prove my claim that the coin is made of lead, I'll take the picture of the coin from ebay, post it here and put it side by side with a 1923 merc in about good to fair condition to show you what a coin in that condition really looks like. You will see that it is much brighter than a coin made of lead, even in such terrible condition.

 

That seems a repairable coin if someone wanted to have a pro do it. There isn't much damage in the devices and although it might not fool a TPG, it could some on ebay as the mintmark and other checkpoints would still be good.

Jim

 

Here's a picture of a real mercury dime in fair to about good condition:



yes, I know this may be alittle blurry, but that's because I took this picture with my scanner. Scanners make pictures of silver coins in bad condition blurry because the light reflects off of the "warn smooth" silver surface very well, but what's important to note is not the detail or the light flashing off the coin, but the general color of the coin. This is one of the ways you can tell silver apart from lead made to look like tarnished silver.



Now here's the coin that we've been talking about:



Look at the top hole, the counterfieter (the person who made the coin rather than the ones selling it), didn't realize that the center of the planchent can easily be seen from the top hole. And guess what, the center is black. If the coin was made of silver, the center would be a whitish greyish color, but instead it's completely black. What this tells me is that the coin is a 100% genuine fake.

Also, when silver tones due to the natural aging process, it gets brown, not black.

 

I would like to see Mark's response to this. Sometimes photos can be deceiving.