RARE 1916D MERCURY DIME

Swanie1 · Sep 3, 2004

A number of years ago I was detecting in a park, here in the Midwest, and popped up this 1916D mercury dime in the outfield of the ball diamond. At that time, I didn't know enough about caring for silver coins so I decided to clean it with simichrome polish. Also, notice the two nicks I made with my poker. What a dummy!!! As you can notice, it is still a 1916D and has good detail. A couple of years later I popped up another 1916D in AG condition in the front yard of a house. I didn't post a picture of that one..

lab rat · Sep 3, 2004

Awesome coin! Even w/ nicks and cleaning, this is still worth $$$. Tough lesson, though. Great find!

coinshooter · Sep 3, 2004

I'd say that coin would still go for a couple of thousand. I wouldn't admit to cleaning it! 8)

elkboy · Sep 3, 2004

excellent find, congrats. HH Dave

Thonolan · Sep 4, 2004

Ouch. Those "nicks" are pretty severe.

coinshooter · Sep 4, 2004

I'd certainly still buy it from you if you ever wanted to sell it. Just send me a PM anytime! Nicks or no nicks. 8)

Texan43 · Sep 12, 2004

Great coin...if it had of been a 1916 D you would have hit the jackpot!!!!

coinshooter · Sep 13, 2004

It was a 1916 D

Swanie1 · Oct 11, 2004

Based on what you see in my pictures and my description, , would it be worth my while to send it to ANACS for grading or would they bother with it since it was cleaned and has the nicks on it? What would you folks think it would grade for as an estimated guess?
thanks

Utah Jones · Oct 12, 2004

Nice coin! In my oppinion, it would grade at about EF-40

Siegfried Schlagrule · Oct 12, 2004

some slab services refuse to grade cleaned coins and others will put it in a special holder and call it damaged. exanimo, ss

Hoser John · Oct 13, 2004

Cleaned it,ruined it,do not pass go,do not collect $200!!Bummer,expensive lesson to learn too late-John

scavenger · Oct 21, 2004

hello,
I'm new here and am just getting started in the sport.. or whatever you wanna call it

. I found a dime similar to the one above mine is dated 1944. It is pretty worn but no dings or nicks. the outline of the face is still pretty good, what would you fellows think it may be worth?

that sure is a nice lookin dime you got up there, a hard lesson learned about those nicks.

True_Metal · Oct 22, 2004

Hey, Scavenger welcome aboard 8) What you have is a Winged Liberty Head Dime. Aka Mercury Dime. Going by the grade you said yours is in (Good to possibly very good) according to my current price books it is worth between 75 Cents to 1 Dollar. That year was minted in high numbers unlike the 1916 D pictured above which only around 264,000 were ever minted, hence why they are worth a pretty decent sum of $$$

scavenger · Oct 22, 2004

thnaks true_metal in that case i'll keep it

coinshooter · Oct 22, 2004

Swanie1,
There are slabbers that will slab your coin. Just need to call around first and find out which one with the best reputation will not slab it. Don't even bother with PCGS, they will just rip you off for your money and send your coin back to you. I wrote them a long letter asking why they didn't charge a discounted rate when they sent coins back "in a body bag" as they call it in Numismatics. They said they were still giving an opinion and that was worth the money they were charging. To which I countered that they didn't have the extra time and expense of encapsulating. Essentially after this, they said this was the way they did things and tough luck. I tried to explain to them that this would bring them more business, but they didn't see it that way. The top dog in the grading business (PCGS) are a bunch of snooty folks who really treat their customers like crap, so as I said above make some phone calls before you spend your money to be denied encapsulation. And, yes, this coin, or any 16 D Merc is always worth encapsulating. The value on this coin has gone through the roof. I would say it is THE most in demand coin on the market today. Present values of a coin in the condition you have there would most likely be over $1000

True_Metal · Oct 22, 2004

Thanks for that info Coinshooter. Its good to know who the snobish, holier than thou attitude asswipes are in that business in case i ever run across a coin like this, so i can avoid them right from the start! 8)

rosevelt · Oct 23, 2004

how come this is so rare.

chuckered · Oct 23, 2004

There was only 264,000 of them made which isn't much as far as coins go.

True_Metal · Oct 23, 2004

chuckered said:
There was only 264,000 of them made which isn't much as far as coins go.

Just as Chuckered and i had stated Rosevelt. 264,000 is a drop in the bucket compared to millions of other years minted of the Mercury dimes. If you get lucky and pull on of these babies from the ground do not clean it! leave it as is or you might screw yourself royally out of some $$$$ if you decide to sell it. The 1916 D's are going to do nothing but go up in price as the years roll along so keep that in mind