An Update and a Reflection

As an update to last week's journal - no, I didn't get the MS65 Mercury dime that I wrote about. Overall, it was a good coin, but I kept going back to look at the reverse again and again. Something just wasn't right, at least to me. There were a couple of dings, scratches, marks, I don't know what you would call them, to the fasces below the middle of the three bands. I just wasn't happy with that. When you look at a coin, and the first things your eyes notices are the problem areas (if any), then maybe you shouldn't have that coin. I know, sometimes a collector has to accept a less than stellar coin to complete a collection - but this certainly doesn't have to be the case with a short set of Mercury dimes.

However, the itch to add to my growing collection was getting the better of me - and it was ok, because I found an MS66 1944-D for auction that really looked good in the photographs. Of course, photographs can mask problems so I always take a chance that they look as good or better in person. In fact, one of my Mercs actually looks better than the photo. Anyway, this MS66 didn't have the problems with the fasces and even looked like it had most of the bands - so I put in a bid and it turned out to be a winner at a price very close to the current "value".

I do think that this was a steal, in a way, because now - with the coin in hand I can see that it is probably as close to FB as you can get without getting the designation and corresponding value increase. There is a little area of darker silver under the "L" in Liberty on the obverse, but you need a loupe to even come close to worrying about it.

This was also a good chance to take out my Mercs - all 4 of them (now I'm 25% complete in the short set) - and really study them with my loupe. 75% of my Mercs are MS66, "only" 25% are FB (after reading last week's journal, you know I am not a big FB fanatic anyway), 25% are very close to FB, 100% are PCGS so far. I have nothing against NGC holders (well, at least not the new ones - my eyes are constantly drawn to the white prongs instead of the coin), but have yet to find a Merc in an NGC holder at a price I am willing to pay for the grade. It seems like NGC holds its own against PCGS in terms of pricing, at least for Mercs.

These are beautiful coins - I honestly don't think I could be happy with just one. I examined each one closely again with a loupe and am happy with all of them. I may upgrade my 1943 MS65 at a later date, but that is not a priority. By the way, upgrade to me doesn't mean MS65 to MS66 or higher, it means upgrade to a better coin regardless of numeric designations. I hope a lot of collectors think this way. I've taken time to build this collection to this point - anyone could go out and purchase a short set in MS64, 65, 66 and even 67 - but would they be bought for quality? I don't know, so I purchase one coin at a time with an eye to quality. I've passed on two MS66 coins because of quality or pricing, I don't focus on FB. I like what Q. David Bowers says in his Expert's Guide about Full Details - check it out.

I know my set will never be in the Top 10 in the Registry, but I will be happy with it and hopefully a buyer or buyers 50 years or so in the future will be too.

On a personal note - the recession is starting to hit home as we were officially told this week we will not get a pay raise this year, and a pay cut is not off the table yet either. So far, my coin budget is doing ok - I always budget for everything in the year as if no pay raise if coming anyway. A pay cut, however, may change things. If that is so, I can do what other journal posters on here are doing - cutting down on planned purchases and sitting down and reflecting on the coins I have and their history.

Have a great week!