Massive Silver Cache - Detecting with my head!

[Jaichim24]

Well, since I got into Metal Detecting and have been reading all the posts on the non-clad silver, I kept on remembering one time in the early 80's when my Father showed me an old cigar box of his. It had a bunch of dimes in it, at the time he was thinking of selling them because the price for silver was good. I remember telling he shouldn't sell them and to hold onto them. I had forgotten about the conversation until recently, and if he had sold them or not. After talking with my Dad today, I began my silver hunt at my Parents house! I had almost given up when I go to reach for this box in the closet that was labeled "sea shells". I was trying to move it out of the way to continue looking for the cigar box, however, this box of "sea shells" weighed close to 20 pounds! (it wasn't that big of a box!) Tricky old man I had, hiding the dimes in plain sight!! I had looked past that stupid box a ton of time! I'll tell the rest of the story with pictures.

[attachment 92048 CigarBox1.jpg]So this is the box, just as I remember it.

[attachment 92049 CigarBox2.jpg]Lots of glass cigar tubes in it! I was starting to shake a bit!

[attachment 92050 CigarBox3.jpg]So here they are, layed out. 19 of them were filled to the rim with silver dimes!!!!!!

[attachment 92051 CigarBox4.jpg]Hey he even managed to save a cigar for me!!!! I wonder if it's still good?!?! That partially filled tube has 1965 dimes in it. I guess he didn't like the clad either.

[attachment 92052 CigarBox5.jpg]In case you're wondering about the labels, the "M" labels are Mercury dimes, the "R" labels are all Roosevelt dimes. Not sure why he singled out 1963 or 1964, perhaps when he started collecting?

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed it, not technically a electronic metal detecting find, but rather a metal detecting find using the built in one I have! I'm going to go through the tubes now and count, and catalog all of the years. I'll post when I'm done!

Jai

 

[Magyar]

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[General Ray]

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[Brian(upstateNY)]

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[Craig in Alabama]

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[Jaichim24]

Well, I only managed to go through one tube of Merc's. Each tube seems to be able to hold 116 dimes X 19 tubes = 2,204 silver dimes! Melt value is around $3,000!

 

[Ed SW Fla]

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[Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska]

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[Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska]

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[Elson(La)]

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[General Ray]

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[Jaichim24]

Does anyone have a list of key dates, or a web site that lists the values? (not the melt value but I suppose the collectors value)

 

[General Ray]

start with, good luck

http://coins.about.com/od/coinvalues/qt/mercury_keys.htm
http://coins.about.com/od/coinvalues/l/bl_mercury_dime_values.htm

 

[Brandy[Ma.]]

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[Jaichim24]

Thanks for the links. I found this site, http://www.pcgs.com/prices/ They have crazy prices for these dimes depending on the grade. What is confusing me, they list each dime twice, one listed as "FB" which stands for full band, and the other price has no designation. Anyone know what it is? They also list down at the bottom, some PR designation. Not sure what that is either.

Thanks,

Jai

 

[dobbie]

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[Jaichim24]

Well, I only managed to get through the 4 tubes of Mercury Dimes today. Not sure if I can make it through another 15 tubes for the Roosevelts. I did not have any luck finding a key date web site on the Roosevelts. Lots of Merc's, no key dates found. Below is a complete list of the Mercs. 496 total!

Mint Mark
Type Year D S
Mercury 1916
Mercury 1917 4 1 1
Mercury 1918 3 1 1
Mercury 1919 3
Mercury 1920 6
Mercury 1921
Mercury 1922
Mercury 1923 3
Mercury 1924 3
Mercury 1925 1
Mercury 1926 3
Mercury 1927 2
Mercury 1928 2
Mercury 1929 3
Mercury 1930
Mercury 1931
Mercury 1932
Mercury 1933
Mercury 1934 5 1
Mercury 1935 16 2
Mercury 1936 14 1
Mercury 1937 15 1 2
Mercury 1938 6 1
Mercury 1939 13 3
Mercury 1940 20 2 3
Mercury 1941 40 10 6
Mercury 1942 54 5 7
Mercury 1943 60 10 6
Mercury 1944 79 10 6
Mercury 1945 51 8 2
406 54 36 496


Well I had nice spacing, but when I preview it, everything squishes together. Just look for the spaces to see how many of the D and S there were.

 

[Tom in Victoria]

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[therick]

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[General Ray]

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