Pulled a 1920 Mercury dime from a flea market junk box

Went to the flea market over by the old fairgrounds yesterday morning. Found a guy selling a bunch of random foreign coins for a dollar each, but he had a box of old US stuff too. I spotted a Mercury dime that looked clean, no bends or nasty spots, so I grabbed it for a buck. Got home and it's a 1920, not the rarest but it's the oldest coin in my shoebox collection now. Anybody else have luck digging through those junk bins at flea markets?

2 comments

2 Comments

david_stone2mo ago

I saw a video recently where a guy pulled a 1921 Mercury from a coin shop junk bin for like 50 cents, so it's not just an old wives' tale. Yours being a 1920 is solid, the older Mercs like that are getting harder to find in decent shape. I've been hitting up flea markets for years and the trick is to really dig past the top layer, that's where the good stuff hides. People just dump their grandpa's leftover change in those bins and don't know what they have. Makes you wonder how many other old coins are sitting in those boxes.

campbell.logan2mo ago

Oh man, that's exactly how I found my 1916 dime a few years back. Same deal, buried under a pile of crusty wheat cents in some guy's shoebox. Paid a dollar for it and didn't even realize it was the semi-key date until I got home and looked it up. Those junk bins are gold mines if you're patient enough to sift through the gross ones.