I never thought a contact mark could be a good thing

Yes you read that right...I never thought that I could conceive of a scenario where a nick or contact mark on a coin would be good. Well, maybe not good for the coin but it works for me.

As I mentioned in a journal entry several weeks ago, I have started a Mercury dime short set. It has been several months and I just picked up my 5th coin of the 15 coin set. My target grade was MS67 and I hoped to get FB's on the coins where the price difference was nominal.

Which brings me back to the "tick". I had my eye on this super 1944-S. It had the basic criteria I'm searching for..minimum graded 67, clear face on "mercury" without any contact marks on the cheek, none of the splotchy brown coloring that some get, and of course I love the "flowlines" in the luster that is a trait of these little beauties.

The reverse had a great strike and about 95% FSB's--the other 5% of the band that did not qualify was due to "the nick". I could easily lament of how much this coin would be worth had there been no nick---an MS68 lists at $230 and an MS68FB ( no "tick") lists for $5,500 !! However the truth is, that without the nick, I could have never afforded this coin. It would be sitting in the vault of some high end collector or gathering mucho registry points in a top ranked set here at Collectors Society.

So as nuts as it sounds, cheers to my nick and my new addition to my collection which now has 5 coins---3 MS67's and 2 MS67FB's. I may never win the prize for #1 set...but if I continue with my patience, my standards and some frugality...I think I can assemble a superior set for the cost that will have similar quality/strike/luster and eye appeal...wish me luck, this may take a while....as always, happy hunting to e1