1942/1 Mercury Dime. FS-101. MS-63 (PCGS).

The offered 1942/1 Mercury dime is an important condition rarity of this perennially popular overdate. Mostly brilliant with satiny mint luster, both sides are sharply defined from the rims to the centers, save for the central cross bands on the reverse. The 1942/1 obverse die was created when two different obverse hubs were used. We suspect that this die was prepared in late 1941 at a time when the engraving department at the Philadelphia Mint was preparing dies for both 1941- and 1942-dated coinage. Evidently an obverse die for the Mercury dime was removed from a hubbing press after receiving an impression from a 1941-dated hub and was then placed in an annealing furnace to strengthen the die steel. After cooling, the die was reinstalled in the hubbing press to receive a second impression, but this time from a 1942-dated hub. This occurred during World War II, a time when the Mint's workforce was expected to maintain higher-than-normal quotas and, consequently, quality control measures were sidestepped. Only a few thousand impressions from this obverse die are believed extant, mostly in circulated grades such as VF and EF. Mint State examples of the 1942/1 are scarce with perhaps 200 to 300 examples known. Unlike with its 1942/1-D counterpart, Full Bands examples of the 1942/1 are in the minority among Mint State survivors. This example would serve with distinction in any cabinet.

PCGS# 5036. NGC ID: 23K4.