Mercury Dimes 1916-1945

The Mint Act of 1890 let the Treasury replace a coin design once it had been in use for 25 years, and Charles Barber's dime, quarter and half dollar reached that mark in 1916. Mint Director Robert W. Woolley went outside the Mint for new designs. Adolph A. Weinman, a former student of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, won both the dime and the half dollar, while Hermon MacNeil designed the quarter.

The new dime did not arrive smoothly. Designs from outside sculptors usually needed reworking before they would strike well, and while that work dragged on, the country still needed dimes. Philadelphia and San Francisco struck Barber dimes dated 1916 before Weinman's coins reached circulation in late October 1916. The public liked them at once and saved many of the first year's coins.

Production rose and fell with the economy. A recession that began late in 1920 cut demand so sharply that Philadelphia and Denver together struck only about 2.3 million dimes in 1921, and Denver made no more until 1924. The Depression did the same in 1930 and 1931, and many of those coins sat in Mint vaults until 1934 and 1935. No dimes at all are dated 1922, 1932 or 1933. Proof dimes returned in 1936 for the first time since 1915 and were struck each year through 1942. Wartime demand then pushed mintages past 200 million at Philadelphia alone. The Roosevelt dime replaced the design in 1946.

Obverse. A young Liberty faces left, wearing a Phrygian cap with a small wing at its side. LIBERTY runs around the top, IN GOD WE TRUST sits in front of her neck, and the date is at the lower right. Weinman's monogram, AW, is between the Y of LIBERTY and the date. The cap and wings were meant to stand for freedom of thought, not for Mercury, whose hat looks quite different.

Reverse. A fasces, a bundle of rods around an axe, stands upright with an olive branch wrapped around it. The rods stand for strength through unity, the axe for authority, and the olive branch for peace. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA arcs above, E PLURIBUS UNUM is to the right, and ONE DIME is at the bottom. The fasces later became the emblem of the Italian Fascist party, which Weinman's 1916 design had nothing to do with.

Mint mark. Look at the lower left of the reverse, just inside the rim, beside the bottom of the fasces where the olive branch ends. D is Denver and S is San Francisco. Philadelphia used no letter.

Full Bands. The bands tying the rods are the highest point on the reverse, so they are often flat. A coin graded with the Full Bands (FB) designation has those bands fully separated. NGC asks for a full split, with a recessed line, between the two central bands, plus separation in the upper and lower groups. PCGS (search) judges the central bands, wants no break in the split from strike or damage, and does not need them rounded; it generally gives FB only to Mint State coins, with exceptions for the 1916-D and the two 1942 overdates. FB coins sell at a premium, but NGC points out that other parts of the design can still be weak on a coin with full bands.

• 1916-D: 264,000 struck. Denver had just begun the new dimes when it was ordered to switch to quarters for the rest of the year. First-year hoarding left enough worn coins to go around, but counterfeiters target it constantly: a D added to a 1916 Philadelphia dime is the classic fake, and NGC says professional authentication is a must.
• 1921: 1,230,000 struck. The 1921 numerals have a distinctive shape, with both 1s bowed and broad-based and an open 9, which helps expose 1941 dimes altered to read 1921.
• 1921-D: 1,080,000 struck, all early in the year. NGC finds it noticeably scarcer than the Philadelphia coin, and gems are quite rare.
• 1926-S: 1,520,000 struck. Very scarce from Fine upward, and few Mint State pieces have full bands.
• 1931-D and 1931-S: 1,260,000 and 1,800,000 struck. Many did not leave the Mint until 1934 and 1935, so Mint State rolls were saved. The 1931-S is rarely found with full bands.
• 1942/1: one Philadelphia obverse die was hubbed once from a 1941 hub and once from a 1942 hub, so a 1 shows under the 2. It was announced in 1943, but the coins had already gone into circulation, and gems are rare.
• 1942/1-D: a second die made the same way went to Denver. It was not reported until 1960, and the 41 underneath is less distinct than on the Philadelphia coin.
• 1945-S Micro S: several 1945-S reverse dies took a tiny S punch made in 1907 for Philippine coins struck at San Francisco. It is not rare, but it is very popular, and NGC calls Full Bands examples exceedingly rare.
• 1936 Proof: 4,130 struck, the first proofs since 1915. Proof output grew each year to 22,329 in 1942, the last until 1950.

• Composition: 90% silver, 10% copper
• Weight: 2.5 grams
• Actual silver weight: 0.0723 troy ounce
• Diameter: 17.9 mm (NGC lists 17.8 mm)
• Edge: reeded

These specifications did not change from 1916 to 1945, so every Mercury dime holds the same 0.0723 ounce of silver whatever its date or mint.