Undiscovered Facts About Mercury Dimes

Mercury in Greek mythology was known as the "quick messenger" and was armed with wings to easier perform his obligations.

The confusion gets in when the designer of the coin, Adolf Weinman, added wings to Liberty's headgear.The wings were appended to symbolize "liberty of thought". However in the end, due to misconception, the coin was improperly addressed the mercury dime.

The mercury head dime was minted from 1916 through 1945 when it was replaced by the Roosevelt dime.

All mercury dimes are 90% silver, therefore they are at least worth their silver bullion price... which is more than 10 cents.

For mercury dimes -- and most other 90% silver coins -- you can anticipate a dealer to pay you 9 times face value for them (silver being 15.00/oz). So every mercury dime is worthy at least 90 cents or more. This is of course with the exclusion of the less usual mercury dimes which are listed here:

Dime Values:

1916 D - $900.00-$9,200.00 : Extremely low mintage value

1916 S - $4.00-$20.00 : Lower mintage value

1917 D - $4.50-$45.00 : Lower mintage value

1919 D - $4.00-$24.00 : Lower mintage value

1921 - $60.00-$300.00 : Low mintage value

1921 D - $75.00-$400.00 : Low mintage value

1925 D - $4.00-$40.00 : Lower mintage value

1926 S - $12.00-$60.00 : Lower mintage value

1931 D - $8.00-$20.00 : Lower mintage value

1942 2/1 - $625.00-$900.00 : Same as above without the D mintmark

1942 D 2/1 - $675.00-$950.00

The large margin in price ranges all depends on the grade of your coin.

The mint mark on the mercury head dime is very little and can be found on the reversed side of the coin on the bottom left -- right after the E in the word ONE and just left of the branch.

The prices listed previously for the more rare mercury dimes are from the Red Book. You likely will not receive this amount of money for them from a dealer, because a trader won't always give you exactly what the coin is worth. If they did, they would never make any money and be out of business.

For the most popular mercury dimes, you can anticipate to get about a buck for each one for them, no matter what shape they're in. Silver is silver, whether it's pretty or not.