If it was me I would have bought a coin instead of the sled. This from someone who lives up in the north woods of Wisconsin
Most I paid for a single coin was about 890.00 for the 2016 Walking Liberty Gold. I do have a large collection of coins average about 400.00 and my 2018 goal is to have a box of 20. This change is in line with my learning and settling in as they say.
I paid $1050 for a 1916-d mercury dime in G6 certified by PCGS. It completed my business strike date-and-mint-mark collection of mercury dimes.
I am about to embark on my own collection of Mercury dimes. I was prodded into this within the past two weeks when, much to my surprise, a search of a Coinstar reject bin provided me with a very nice 1942P. I was awestruck at its beauty — alas, no pictures — wondering to myself whether it was 40 or 50 years ago when I might have received a mercury dime in change. I bought the trio of 1944 coins as it is my birth year... all in remarkable condition, and all three for less than I might expect to pay for a common Morgan dollar. I dare say, though, that my budget for all 29 years for the series might not make it to what you paid for that '16-D @mac266 . I suppose I'll find out soon enough what the real pricey ones are.
The 1916-d is the key to the set. You can regularly find them in AG3 for a few hundred bucks, and they are very common in G4. G6 is a bit of a rare bird, but at VG8 you start to pay out big money. The 1921-d and 1921 are considered "semi-keys" to the series. They are also regularly available in lower grades for around $50 each, but higher grades are also affordable. Then you have the overdates of 1942. Both the Denver and Philadelphia mints made the same mistake in 1942, where they polished the "1" out of the 1941 die and restamped it with a 2 for the next year. On one die in each location they failed to completely polish it out, resulting in an appearance of a 2 superimposed over the 1. The Philadelphia one is obvious to the naked eye. Denver's takes a loupe to see. The overdates will cost you a few hundred bucks each, too, depending on grade. Those are the five coins in the series that will affect your pocket book. All the others can be had for a few bucks each, even in higher grades. It's a fun series, so knowing what the five roadblocks are, I'd suggest doing the opposite of what I did -- buy the keys first and then fill in the easy ones!
Yeah, you can get some beauties, certified as high as MS66 for under $30 in some cases. The real money is finding FB ones. Some dates, like 1925-D and others are crazy hard to find with FB, and crazy expensive.
Thanks to @mac266 and you for the help. I'll start investigating the 5 most elusive ones, but as I paid just $8 for a stunning AU 1944-S it'll be the very few that I'll go over $30. I've all but given up on acceptable 1916 & 1921 WL Halves and recently called a halt to that search. So, help me out, what is FB? Edit: just checked my Coinstar 1942P; beautiful but not the rare one.
that is a great Idea it would be very frustrating to have everything but the key dates and you probable will have more money in your pocket at the end.
Here are a few pics of that au details 28p. I dont know if i posted the quote thang properly or not....
Was looking to make by far my biggest purchase in a legend auction a month or so back. For an absolutely gorgeous classic head $2.50 that I thought was way undervalued on Legend's estimated sale price of 5-6k. Thought maybe their estimated sale price would keep it in that area and I could get a steal but I wasn't alone and it sold for over $13k (I was NOT a player there!). Glad to know my instincts were correct at least lol
Bullion wise $245 for a swiss gold 20 francs. Apart from that $140 (including shipping!) For a 1941(P) proof mercury dime, NGC PF66. I was really lucky on that one!