Designed by: Adolph A. Weinman
Issue Dates: 1916-1945
Composition: 90% silver, 10% copper
Diameter: 17.9 mm
Weight: 2.50 grams (38.58 grains)
Edge: Reeded
Business Strike Mintage: 2,677,153,880
In 1916, sculptor Adolph A. Weinman produced a new design for the dime. Called the Liberty Head type at the time, the motif features Miss Liberty facing left, wearing a Phrygian cap with wings, LIBERTY encircling her head, and with IN GOD WE TRUST and the date below. The wings on the cap gave rise to the popular term ''Mercury dime" for the winged messenger. But Mercury was a male in mythology and had wings on his feet. Nevertheless, the name has stuck, and Mercury dimes are what collectors know them as today.
The reverse depicts a fasces or bundle of sticks with a blade at the top, against a branch in the background, and with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and ONE DIME around the border. E PLURIBUS UNUM appears at the lower right. The design was continued without change through 1945. Coinage was accomplished at the Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco mints.
Examples of the Mercury dime type are readily available in all grades from About Good through superb Uncirculated. Certain issues are lightly struck and are apt to have weaknesses on the bands tying the sticks in the fasces on the reverse. Those with sharply defined bands, designated as "full split bands” are worth more for all issues.
