GTG: 1916 Mercury Dime

Hello CT friends. I don't have occasion to hang out in the US forums all that much but I have seen that many of you post "guess the grade" games every so often and I thought that it looked like fun so here goes. Anyone care to take a guess?

 

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Is it yours? Beautiful coin! She's a gem, for sure. Nice separated bands too.

 

Thank you @eddiespin. Yes, this coin is mine. I am a great admirer of the designs from Adolf Wienman and the Winged Liberty Dimes are my favorite

I really like all the design parallels with the Roman Republican coin on my avatar.

 

MS-66FB

 

Beautiful Dime!! I could see this getting a solid MS-66FB had it not been for what appears to be a staple scratch on the reverse from the R of AMERICA to the S of PLURIBUS. I think plus the very light hairline on Liberty's cheek limit this coin to an MS-64FB. An UNC Details "Reverse Scratched" would not surprise me.

 

I'm going to say ms 65 fb and I'm also thinking it is in an old anacs soap bar,the scratch didn't detail it .... sweet coin two thumbs up!


Opps... didn't see the NGC up top my bad.

 

66FSB

 

Is that a staple scratch on the reverse field? There appears to be another scratch on the obverse from her eye to her throat. I'm going to go with UNC details, scratched - but if you're just picking up an example out of curiosity, that's a pretty good one. The details on that piece are quite strong (as would be expected from the first year of issue).

 

I am actually rather surprised that I was able to capture the obverse scratch with this photo as it took me a few minutes of playing with the light under a 16x loop to see it. It is undetectable to the eye without magnification as far as I can tell. A reverse scratch (actually a die scratch see here) on the other hand is detectable though very subtle and I don't know what it could be from. I will give the hint that this coin straight graded (happily )

This is fun. What is the normal time frame for posting the slab reveal in these kinds of games?

 

Well I sure hope the graders take a better look at it than that. For one, strange how that "scratch" runs under the "S" in "PLURIBUS." For two, look at the top part of the "scratch," where it touches the bottom part of the "R." That bottom part isn't the "R," itself, but the shallower strike-doubled part of that "R" from the small slide this coin took. One can see more of that small slide in the letters adjacent to the "R."

 

64FB

 

Well, we're your market, right? The market graders were just guessing at how we're going to bid it? So, when you had enough...

 

MS65FB, very nice Dime!

 

I am at 65 full bands, real Perty Merc!

 

Ms-64FB

 

The reason that @physics-fan3.14 and I think this is a staple scratch is that it is much brighter in appearance than the other "die scratches". There are two possibilities: 1 it's a staple scratch and the reason it's brighter is that the staple revealed fresh metal under the toning. 2 We are seeing an illusion and the scratch is really a die scratch but the fields are darker because of photographic and lighting technique.

The OP can tell us for sure. Is that scratch area raised above the surrounding fields or is it scratched into the fields? If it's raised then it's most likely a die scratch. If it's below the surface then it's a staple scratch.

 

I lean away from die scratch because it is so significantly different in appearance from the other die polish in the surrounding area.

 

That's my feeling as well. The surrounding die scratches all have the same color toning as the fields. That scratch is just so much brighter that I see it as a scratch in the metal.

 

This has been a very fascinating discussion. I have looked very hard at the area in question with my loop and I believe that it is raised up out of the field.

 

MS 64 FB