Professional Coin Grading Service announced last year that it would expand its Prooflike designation across a broad range of coin series, moving the “PL” designation far beyond Morgan dollars as applied when PCGS opened in February 1986.

According to PCGS standards, a coin’s surface is Prooflike when there is a clear reflection in the fields on both sides as viewed from 2 to 4 inches away. A cloudy effect or striations may sometimes impede reflectivity, but no haze is seen on either side of this 1941-S Winged Liberty Head dime graded Mint State 68 full bands Prooflike that Heritage Auctions sold for $3,840 on April 23.

Heritage notes, “Struck from highly polished dies, this brilliantly reflective Superb Gem is wholly untoned and sharply struck, with perfectly split bands and unmarked, rounded diagonals,” adding, “Die polish lines remain largely undiminished by strike, suggesting one of the first strikes from the dies.”

The price was significantly more than the $2,760 and $3,120 that examples without the “PL” designation sold for at auctions last year, suggesting that the market is attaching a nice premium to coins with Prooflike designations in the “Mercury” dime series.

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