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I just bought 100 merc dimes for $240 off craigslist last night, I thought that was a pretty good deal. The earliest is '34. It was kind of funny because she said that she picked out all the worn ones because she didn't want me to get less silver. So I told her I was definitely interested in the worn ones because that probably means they are earlier dates. So sure enough, she emails me back and says that she has some older ones and even an 1888, I didn't realize till I looked it up that that's even earlier than the barbers. So i think I'll be buying some more from her on Thursday, she said she'd hold them for me. I'll probably end up offering her more than just the melt value if she has a lot of these old ones.

This was my first substantial buy and I thought I did pretty well, especially considering that silver just dropped a few dollars since the end of last Thursday or so.

What do you guys think, was this a good time to buy? Also, what do you think the price will do over the summer? I have this feeling that maybe it will just slowly taper down to the high 20's through the summer and then there might be some action again, but I don't know.

I'll let you know if I get anything good in this next lot.....

24 x face is a little above melt but still a pretty good price. I wouldn't offer any more for the older coins unless they have clear nuimismatic value.

Now is a pretty good time to buy. Its possible that silver could test $30, but it probably won't go any lower than that.

SILVER seems to be following the old summer pattern. Slowly drift down, and then sometime in August begin the ascent to higher ground for the rest of the year. Support at $34 or so for SILVER seems to be rock solid. We could go lower, but $28 should firmly hold as it marks the long term rising trend support level. I guess nibbling in the low $30s might be wise.

Spot at $34 SILVER, is at 24.3X. 24X is a fair price for Mercs, I think.

Good Luck...

Mmmm...two rolls of mercury dimes Anyway, that's a pretty good deal, certainly very hard to get them for less. I would definitely inquire about the earlier dimes but it would be nice to inspect them before buying. Barbers are often really worn and I personally don't care for them. That being said I'd still pay melt for them however you have to take into account the wear. I'm all about early mercs though, worn or not

good buy im buying silver now

Certainly not a terrible deal. No sales tax, no shiiping charges, so that makes it even better. All it's going to take is one or more of the older ones to be rare and you've just hit one out of the park. She may have some friends or neighbors trying to sell coins, so have her spread the word.

the price is ok.put 50 in a stack next to 50 nice rosies and see how much wear they have.

For comparison purposes, brand new SILVER dimes weigh 2.5 grams each; ten BUs would weigh 25 grams. Standard circulated SILVER coins use the 715 troy ounce standard per $1000 bag currently. $1000 of BU dimes would weigh in at 2.5 grams * 10000 = 25,000 grams = 803.768 troy ounces of coins. Since they are 90% SILVER, you would have 803.768 * .9 = 723.472 troy ounces of SILVER in a BU bag. Based on that, the expected wear on a circulated bag is = (723.472 - 715)/ 723.472 = 1.17% wear. Heavily circulated dimes, like a well worn slick Mercury, could show 10% wear. Much of the wear occurs on the high points of the coin, rims and higher relief field areas. That is the reason why when you stack worn Mercs, the roll seems much smaller than it should. So, given that you are not getting BU Mercs (maybe a few AUs), expect Mercs in general to have more wear, averaging around 5% wear or so, unless you are getting a nice batch of EF-AUs.

Country wrote:For comparison purposes, brand new SILVER dimes weigh 2.5 grams each; ten BUs would weigh 25 grams. Standard circulated SILVER coins use the 715 troy ounce standard per $1000 bag currently. $1000 of BU dimes would weigh in at 2.5 grams * 10000 = 25,000 grams = 803.768 troy ounces of coins. Since they are 90% SILVER, you would have 803.768 * .9 = 723.472 troy ounces of SILVER in a BU bag. Based on that, the expected wear on a circulated bag is = (723.472 - 715)/ 723.472 = 1.17% wear. Heavily circulated dimes, like a well worn slick Mercury, could show 10% wear. Much of the wear occurs on the high points of the coin, rims and higher relief field areas. That is the reason why when you stack worn Mercs, the roll seems much smaller than it should. So, given that you are not getting BU Mercs (maybe a few AUs), expect Mercs in general to have more wear, averaging around 5% wear or so, unless you are getting a nice batch of EF-AUs.

What he said...

jasmatk wrote:the price is ok.put 50 in a stack next to 50 nice rosies and see how much wear they have.

Ok, that makes sense now, because she gave them to me in a little plastic bag and put them into a roll when I got home but was suprised to see that the roll looked like it was a few dimes short. Well I thought I was paying her the melt value but I guess I payed her a little more. I guess I don't feel too bad about it though because she said her mom just died, that's why she's getting rid of the coins. So I don't mind giving her a deal.

I'm meeting her again tonight to buy 100 dimes for my friend and she's also going to bring the older ones so I'll let you all know what I find.