The record is $29,900 for an MS-65 coin at auction in 2007. Production was extremely low since the Denver mint had been ordered to concentrate on quarters until late in the year.
This is the key to the series and it is eagerly sought in all grades.
The most desirable issues in all dates are ones that show all of the bands holding the fasces on the reverse clearly and fully separated, known as Full Split Band coins.
Some dates are harder to find in top condition and command very high prices, though. Even low mintage dates aren’t rare since many were held back by collectors and hoarders. While one of the most popular coins to collect, Mercury dimes are not hard to collect.
Over 300 million were made annually from 1942-1944 and over 240 million were produced in 1945, the Mercury dime’s final year of issue. Minting gradually resumed in 1934 (31 million) and reached a pre-war peak of 108 million in 1940. The Great Depression slowed production considerably again with no dimes struck in 19. No dimes were minted in 1922, but production resumed at modest levels until the Crash of 1929. Nearly 300 million Mercury dimes were made between 19 when an economic slowdown caused demand to drop. Coins from the earlier strikes were recalled and melted, but one is known to exist. Due to the coin’s popularity, first-day sales at banks were limited to minimize rapid depletion of supplies and hoarding. The problems were addressed and new coins were released into circulation on October 30. The first run of the Weinman coins was to begin at Philadelphia on August 30, but after complaints from vending machine and pay phone companies poured in, production was halted and Barber dimes went back online. Despite efforts by several informed sources, the coin continues to be known by the name Mercury to this day.īarber dimes remained in production well into 1916 due to a severe coin shortage and initial die problems with Weinman’s design. The reverse depicted a Greco-Roman fasces, an axe bound with a bundle of wooden rods, surrounded by an olive branch, meant to symbolize America’s readiness to defend itself while hoping for peace.īoth numismatic and popular press articles misrepresented the face as that of messenger god Mercury even though the bust was clearly feminine, and some accounts by those unfamiliar with the fasces called it a battle axe. The face (obverse) of Weinman’s dime featured a bust of Liberty facing left wearing a winged Phrygian cap.
The 75-year-old Barber’s designs were rejected leading him to become moody and uncooperative in bringing the designs into production. On MaAdolph Weinman’s designs were chosen for the dime and half dollar Hermon MacNeil’s for the quarter. Officials were under the misapprehension that changes were mandatory, so they set about soliciting new designs to replace the Charles Barber dime, quarter, and half dollar.Ĭhief Engraver Barber competed with three other sculptors for the new coins’ design. US coin legislation allows the Treasury to change coin designs every 25 years without congressional approval…but doesn’t require it. The so-called Mercury dime was born of a mistake-one that was compounded by misnaming the coin in common usage.