A Crown Jewel for my Short Set

I am having such a wonderful time just happily filling in my Walker Date Set and my Walker Short Set. It is sooo much fun with very little monetary outlay.

BUT the S minted coins of the 1940s are NOT as easy as one might think that they are and they offer QUITE the challenge. I have been searching for about a year now, already. IMHO the 1942-S is the MOST difficult coin to find with a decent strike and is more difficult than even the 1941-S AND the 1943-S coins. Those other two (1941-S & 1943-S) are quite tough, as well, as I believe that they are second and fourth in difficulty, respectively. I would rank the 1944-S as being number three. Many of the 1942-S coins have NO THUMB detail and some have incomplete skirt lines and some examples are even deficient in BOTH of those areas---a plateau, if you will, straight down the center. Then there is the issue of DULLNESS of luster and/or abraded surfaces, which is very prevalent for this issue, too. So it is a very TALL order to fill by finding a nice one, regardless of them having significantly higher population numbers than the early dates.

A MS 66 1942-S is worth about 1100-1500 bucks and that still does NOT guarantee a sharp or even a well-rounded thumb for that matter but it is easier to find a well rounded thumb at that grade level.

When I saw this MS 65 and I just had to have it. Although the central obverse branch stem separation line is incomplete at the very highest point, it still has a very decent thumb, which is more important to me. It also has full skirt lines, clean surfaces and nice luster, too. It met ALL of my stringent requirements. Furthermore, I have ALWAYS wanted a 'RATTLER' holder, so the fact that it is in a rattler slab makes it desirable to me. Also, the fact that CAC has green stickered it makes it even MORE appealing to me and is just more frosting on the cake. A VERY solid MS 65, IMHO, which is ALL that I really needed----no 'ga-ga' grades for me. It is a GEM, so it fits my criteria for my short set coins of 'at least MS 65 or better'.

Now, I just need TWO more 1940s 'S' minted coins and I will have them all (including the 1940-S, which is technically not part of the short set, as that set runs from 1941-1947, with 20 examples in that set), then I can buy the remaining 13 coins in that short set that are VERY affordable and much easier to find coins and I can complete it. I will choose MS 66s and 67s for those 13 remaining D & P coins.

Also, I will only need 3 more coins for my DATE SET after I get all those 1940s 'S' minted coins.

I am making some really GOOD progress here without the stress of the higher price tags and the more arduous searches for the early dates.

Please tell me what you think.

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