Mercury Dime Error Discovered in NYC

Mercury Dime Error Discovered in NYC

This article was originally printed in Numismatic News.
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Errors of the past century tend to be a special group. Because of improved production methods there were not that many errors, but the errors that did exist were sometimes spectacular.

The 1942/41 Mercury dime is one of the best known errors of the past century. Its creation was very simple. A working die was begun with a 1941 master die and completed with a 1942 master die.

Why that happened is unknown. It cannot be ruled out that, it being a time of war and many things were saved for the war effort, the overdate simply was a cost-cutting measure at the end of the year.

Whatever the reason, something odd happened: the 1942/41 was discovered quickly. This was odd because collectors of the day generally were not very interested in errors, and few checked new coins very carefully.

Breen reports a hoard involving four uncirculated rolls, but that story can’t be confirmed, and Q. David Bowers doesn’t remember such a quantity hitting the market. That said, grading service totals show hundreds of Mint State examples of the 1942/41 Mercury dime, which is different from the situation seen with earlier errors.

George Shaw’s ads in the 1945 Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine provide proof of an early discovery. As it worked out, the 1942/41 was discovered in the New York City area by the thousands. Word spread to subway token sellers city-wide, and the coin reached a price of a few dollars.

George Shaw’s brother-in-law, Morris Moscow, sold tokens. It was he who began checking his change. Selling tokens for the D Train, he had a lot of change to check. Shaw would become the marketing wing for the 1942/41 Mercury dime.

We don’t know precisely how many examples of the 1942/41 Moscow found and Shaw sold over the years. It might well have been in the thousands because after Shaw’s death the remaining coins were acquired by the Littleton Coin Company, and the number of 1942/41 Mercury dimes was a staggering 166.

With a price of $525 in G-4, the 166 pieces were worth a substantial sum but being in assorted grades they represented probably the greatest single hoard of the 1942/41 ever seen.

The fact is the 1942/41 remains a very popular coin today, and that is not always the case for an error. In this instance, the 1942/41 has been joined by a 1942/41-D, making a truly unique companion set of errors from the 1940s. It is extremely unusual, and that has helped to keep both interest and prices high.

The 1942/41 is available in Mint State, but high demand brings it to $2,700 in MS-60. An MS-65 is at $12,500, and an MS-65 with full split bands currently lists for $35,000.

The grading service totals show that it is available. Numismatic Guaranty Corporation reports six examples in MS-65 and four more in MS-65 with full split bands out of about 80 graded Mint State examples. At Professional Coin Grading Service, there have been seven examples in MS-65 and another 15 in MS-65 with full split bands out of nearly 90 Mint State examples seen. We have to assume there are perhaps hundreds of examples out there, but it is never enough.