Mercury Dimes are widely ranked among the prettiest American coins ever minted. But did you know the figure on the obverse (that’s the heads side) isn’t Mercury at all?
Let’s take a closer look as we discover the Most Valuable Mercury Dimes. FYI, the FB on Mercury Dimes means Full Band, describing the clarity of the straps behind the coin. FBs are more valuable.
1. 1916-D Mercury Dime Full Band Business Strike
The Mercury Dime is also known as the Winged Liberty Dime. But most people call it the Mercury Dime because they think it shows Mercury, the Roman god of messengers who was often seen wearing a hat with wings. The real picture of Lady Liberty wears a hat with wings.
- Mint Mark: Denver
- Grade: MS 67 FB
- Date of Sale: 11th August 2010
- Price: $207,000
The back of the coin was also hard to understand. It shows a fasces with an olive branch wrapped around it. A fasces is a group of sticks wrapped in a leather strap and connected to a battle axe. Some people thought it looked like a golf club, so they called it the Golf Dime or the Battle Axe Dime.
2. 1918-D Mercury Dime Full Band Regular Strike
Let’s start with the reverse, which is also known as the heads side, to make things clear. The artist gave Lady Liberty wings on her hat to reflect the freedom to think what you want. The hat was a Phrygian Cap, which is also known as a Liberty Cap. A lot of the time, the images of the goddess of liberty wear one.
- Year: 1918
- Mint Mark: Denver
- Grade: MS 67 FB
- Date of Sale: 3rd September 2015
- Price: $182,125
This conical hat has roots in Anatolia and Eastern Europe. It was once worn by freed slaves. People in Persia, Phrygia, Dacia, Media, Thrace, and the Balkans often did it. The hat was used as a sign of freedom during the French and American Revolutions.
3. 1919-D Mercury Dime Full Band Business Strike
Early American money had pictures of Lady Liberty on the front that were meant to be symbolic. Mint engravers who worked for the government made these. Commercial artists, on the other hand, often used American women as models when they were hired to make patterns for coins.
- Year: 1919
- Mint Mark: Denver
- Grade: MS 66 FB
- Date of Sale: 14th January 2019
- Price: $156,000
For the Mercury Dime, the artist asked Elsie Stevens to act like Lady Liberty. The top of an old sock was cut off, and she wore it on her head to look like the Pleiades. At first, it was hard to tell who she was, but it turned out she was one of the artist’s upstairs renters.
4. 1942/1 Overdate Mercury Dime Full Band Regular Strike
Wallace Stevens was a well-known lawyer, insurance executive, and author, and Mrs. Stevens was his wife. She and her husband rented the rooms above the artist. It was Adolph Weinman who was the artist. He learned to paint from Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who made the Double Eagle.
- Year: 1942 Over 1941
- Mint Mark: None (Philadelphia)
- Grade: MS 66 FB
- Date of Sale: 3rd January 2018
- Price: $120,000
Saint-Gaudens was the first business artist to work on American coins. Some of his students and assistants did the same, which made the people who work at the mint very unhappy. They made a bunch of beautiful coins that were hard to mint because they had so many small features.
Also See:-Rare 2006 Nickel Errors Worth Money (Full List)
5. 1918-S Mercury Dime Full Band Business Strike
Most of the time, these artistic coins had accurate designs that needed extra strikes to make them look right. So, they used up dies faster, which caused the mint’s costs to go up because they had to buy so many new dies. But coins are made online these days, so it doesn’t matter about the finer details.
- Year: 1918
- Mint Mark: San Francisco
- Grade: MS 67 FB
- Date of Sale: 14th January 2019
- Price: $144,000
The Mercury Dime was used from 1916 to 1945, even though people at the mint didn’t like it. The only time it was changed was when President Franklin Roosevelt died and people wanted to remember him. He was the 32nd President of the United States and was known as “FDR” by his people.
6. 1919-S Mercury Dime Full Band Regular Strike
The Mercury Dime took the place of the Barber Dime as part of President Theodore Roosevelt’s plan to make coins look better. It began with him in 1904 and was picked up by President William Howard Taft, who came after him. They asked well-known artists to make the boring US coin look new.
- Year: 1919
- Mint Mark: San Francisco
- Grade: MS 66 FB
- Date of Sale: 9th November 2006
- Price: $103,500
These leaders said that the current coins were dull and uninspired, so they wanted some new ideas from outside the country. Coins from the past were made with low costs and usefulness in mind, while coins from today were made for flash and looks.
7. 1945 Mercury Dime Full Band Business Strike
Because of this difference in style, mint engravers and painters hired from outside the company often had disagreements.
On the other hand, personality politics also came into play. Being artists, government artists are going to have tempers that clash at some point. But Weinman didn’t have as much trouble as other people.
- Year: 1945
- Mint Mark: None (Philadelphia)
- Grade: MS 67+ FB
- Date of Sale: March 1st 2018
- Price: $96,000
He had a good time at the mint, in fact, so good that they asked him to design the Walking Liberty Half Dollar. It was used on the American Silver Eagle thirty years after he died too. But let’s talk about how the Mercury Dime was made for now.
8. 1925-S Mercury Dime Full Band Business Strike
Some coin styles were only used for a year or two before they were changed in the late 1800s. This was bad because the mint had to make new dies, which was a pain. Also, it cost a lot to make the plan. It probably also hurt the pride of the people who made the coins.
- Year: 1925
- Mint Mark: San Francisco
- Grade: MS 68 FB
- Date of Sale: 14th January 2019
- Price: $45,600
They had to vote and lobby Congress in order to change a coin, which was a huge mess. The Coinage Act of 1890 let coins change every 25 years without any help from Congress. This was done to avoid these problems. Even though it wasn’t required, it was easier to do.
