Hi all, just signed up and I have a question. I was recently metal detecting and dug this 1920 Merc with two lines, one between the 'r' and 't' in liberty and the other at the base of the neck. After doing a little looking around on the net I believe this is a die crack. Can someone here confirm if it is and any idea of a value? Thanks for any help. Take care, Scott.
Based on the die cracks, I would say that you have yourself a 1920-D Mercury Dime. The die cracks for this date/mm are well known and the one from the tip of the wing feathers to the rim is photographed in David W. Lange's book A COMPLETE GUIDE TO MERCURY DIMES (pg 71). To confirm this you should look for the "D" mintmark which will be located between the "E" in ONE and the bottom of the branch on the reverse. The good news about your coin is that it did not circulate very long and has VF-XF details remaining. The bad news is that the coin has been harshly cleaned and the 1920-D is a common date for the earlier issues. Given that it is a problem coin, you will probably get $10-$15 if you sold it on E-Bay. BTW, die cracks do not usually increase the value of a coin.
Thank you Lehigh96, you are correct. This is a 1920d. I didn't realize such things were documented in a book like that. (I'm pretty new to coin errors and coin collecting in general.) As far as the cleaning, guilty as charged. I rubbed it between my fingers with water and baking soda, obviously a big no-no. While silver usually comes out of the ground in relatively good condition they still can be pretty dirty. Next time I will be much more careful. Thanks again for the quick reply. Take care.
Yep... that was our cleaner of choice back in the fifties. We didn't know any better back then, but man... those coins sure did shine!
very nice find, that looks to have XF details at worst.....but the previous posters nailed it on the head about cleaning it. water and baking soda is fine to use but avoid any kind of rubbing........Also just my two cents but i pay extra for die cracks quite often.
Hello everybody, I am very new to U.S. coins. My question is regarding this coin, I have one almost exactly the same, it has the die crack between R & T in the exact same place as this coin pictured by SalemScott but not coming out of the bottom of the bust. This is the kicker, my one has not got any trace of a 'D' mintmark, and I have looked hard at the area with my 10x loupe and nothing. Is there a missing mintmark variety on this year/type? or is the die crack on both D & plain coins respectfully? If pictures are needed, I will attempt to take some, just let me know. Thankyou =o) - Simon (Jackool)
I have taken some pictures, I hope they are acceptable for verification. Here they are, I hope I have done this right, and that it works. This is my first attempt - Simon
Nowadays, if you really need to clean a coin to get a better look at it after it's dug out of the groud, run it under distilled water, maybe an acetone dip to remove the grime, lightly pat dry it and let it sit out to completely dry. Try searching these forums, there are several really good threads on acetone dipping cleaning and the steps to take without damaging the coin being cleaned. Cool find!
Yeah, I'm sure many coins have been "cleaned" with this method. There's videos on youtube and instructions on other sites telling you to do that nowadays, too. I followed someone's advice once that if you really have the urge to clean a coin, to pick one with absolutely no real value (and double- and triple-check first) and then do it with those. You will be able to know then firsthand what a cleaning like that does. I picked 4 silver dimes that had absolutely the same or less value than the going rate of silver to do mine on, so that the melt value remained the same. As a result, I will never use that method again on a coin. It does totally waste out the surfaces. And I will hold on to these 4 coins until silver rises again and then off they go to the melt pile.
