Gorgeous, lusty & untoned 1945 Mercury Dime [photos attached]

Sorry for the clickbait. Just started collecting coins a couple months ago, and my grandfather gave me this coin yesterday—I really have no idea what I'm looking at, and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Unless I look at it under a very bright light, it's hard to notice any blemishes with the naked eye. Has intense mint luster. Interestingly though... And it's absolutely untoned, which i'm not sure if that means it's been dipped in something or cleaned?

 

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Welcome to the neighborhood!

I'm confused. You have one photo of the reverse that shows nice luster and the other two photos of both sides show hardly any luster.

You would have been better off if you had cropped out the unnecessary background and resized the images before you posted them using the "Full Image" option. The "Thumbnail" really sucks.

Also, you need to get rid of the paper 2x2 with those staples. The staples can damage other coins. It's better to use Saflips.

Chris

 

Welcome to Coin Talk. It's a very nice looking coin. Clearer photos would help a lot. Use the advice by @cpm9ball for better photos and keeping the coin protected.

 

Thanks, at work now. I’ll get you some better images tonight.

 

Photo it out of the flip.

 

Looks like it has nice luster. Probably dipped at some point.
The obverse looks like a really weak strike but the reverse is much stronger. I forgot what causes that. Nice coin overall.
I may change everything I said from different images.

 

Hi, thanks for all the feedback and help. Given how shiny the coin is (and how shitty my camera is), it was hard to capture the essence of the coin in a single image—the lighting/exposure made it really difficult. Waiting on mod approval for the upload, but once they're approved, I'll be sure to post. Thanks again for all the help, y'all are a great community!

 

Probably posted too many photos... wasn't sure which ones were the best, so apologies in advance if I've broken any "Cointalk etiquette" for in doing so. Thanks again!

 

it's a real shame the center bands on the reverse are merged and not split like the top and bottom bands are.

Also the reverse looks like there progressive indirect die transfer (PIDT), looks like the outline of libertys head showing through to the reverse.

the pictures with different lighting's help quite a bit, depending on the lighting you can see some things in pictures, and in others you don't see it.

Seems legit to me and original luster, it's not a candidate for full bands (FB) designation, It will definitely grade in mint state, probably mid mintstate, but I can't really say how high or low it grades. I'm not sure how it would grade due to the PIDT, it would be caused by late stage die deterioration, also the softness of the design elements on the obverse and the sharpness of the reverse, with the exception of the center bands. Grading is objective, and opinionated for the most part. Someone might decide to grade by luster and number of contact marks and not weigh the strike to heavily, another might take the strike and weigh more heavily on that as the starting point, and luster and contact marks all secondary bringing it further down.

I feel good about saying original surfaces, mid-mint state. Might go lower, might go higher depending on the graders determination in hand.

As far as cleaning really goes, dealers properly dip or clean coins all the time and know what they are doing. It's the improperly cleaned, or over cleaned coins that lack luster and dead on eye appeal that are the ungradeable, problem coins.
Plenty of reasons to clean a coin, and if done right, the Third party graders will grade them no problem at all.

 

The die transfer definitely can hinder the grade but a later die state can still grade 67. A later die state is judged heavily on it contact and how ledgible the coin is.

 

Wow, thank you so much for your response. Really appreciate it.

 

Thank you as well!

Do either of you think the coin is worth sending in for grading?

 

Also, do you think the PIDT would increase the grade/value? Or have a negative impact, considering it's not too rare of an error?

 

I do not think it has much effect on the grade beyond it being a late die stage weakness of strike. Many graders will grade from luster and contact marks with strike being a later factor. This coin doesn't have Full Split Bands so it's not going to be an exceptional strike in the first place. Your coin is struck well considering the PiTD but not well enough to qualify for FSB. I dont think in your case it would change much at all. PiDT is pretty common on the thin denomination's like dimes and pennies at least more common than on nickels or quarters ect.

 

The photos aren't clear enough to give that judgement. Put it in a flip. Come back to it after you have studied in hand like coins.

 

According to this site PIDT is considered a "form of die deterioration". Don't know how that affects the grade. http://www.error-ref.com/progressive-indirect-design-transfer/