I have always searched 1942 mercury dimes for the ever elusive 42/1 or 42/1 D. I have mostly been disappointed, but then again whom among us probably hasn't been disappointed in not being able to find major rarities at will. Well, there have been a couple of people who told me I was chasing a pipe dream, all the overdates had been found, if there were any out there, they were squirreled away, that kind of thing. basically it was darn near impossible to find one in the existing piles of mercs out there. Well, I didn't listen to them and have continued to search all the 1942 dimes I can get my hands on, every box, scrap bin, set, you name it. Well I hit the jackpot with my third one this year. It is the nicest by far, the other 42/1-D was a Fine maybe a bit better and the 42/1 was maybe XF. I know this coin has a small abrasion on the reverse, but in hand it is barely noticeable and the pics have washed out a bit of the luster. I make the coin to be about AU-53 or 55. I pulled it from a scrap bin, something that would have been emptied and sent to the smelter in a week or so. Surprised me.
Nice, I've been looking for either of those too, but nothing. That's unbelievable, finding three, where have you been looking? Want to be REALLY disappointed? Try finding a 1969-s DDO cent!
Good deal, BQ! hope you find some more. Patience pays. Reminds me of a 21'd dime in EF I picked up for about $ 15 from a bulk lot many years ago.
It's funny because I've been searching for them since probably the early 90's when I found them in the redbook and nary a one til March of this year when I found two in the scrap bucket, both a 42/1 and 42/1-D. the way I figured it happened is the dealer bought a complete set in an album, the album didn't have spots for them and they sat in the last few empty spaces that most albums have. the dealer popped the good dates and dumped the rest of the non-MS coins into his scrap bucket. Along I came and like always I ask how much for scrap, we agree on a X face amount and I pick. That way I can cherry pick on the cheap. I figured that is how it happened because I also pulled a 45 micro S. Those little beauties, which got turned in a week made the substantial down payment on my daughter's braces. This one, found in the same scrap bucket just a little more than two months later is going directly into my collection.
Nah, I don't do a lot of submitting unless the coin is something I might flip. The diagnostics on coins like these are near impossible to fake.