1916-D Mercury Dime

A new dime by law, or so they thought

An 1890 act of Congress let the Mint replace a coin design without congressional approval once it had been in use for 25 years. Charles E. Barber's dime, quarter and half dollar had been struck since 1892, so 1916 was the first year they could be changed. Mint Director Robert W. Woolley, who took office in April 1915, went further: he told the Commission of Fine Arts the designs had to be changed, a reading the numismatic historian David Lange calls a misinterpretation of the coinage laws.

The commission disliked the sketches from Barber, then in his 36th year as chief engraver, and invited three sculptors to compete: Adolph Weinman, Hermon MacNeil and Albin Polasek. On February 28, 1916, Weinman learned that his designs had been chosen for the dime and the half dollar. The new coins were announced on March 3. According to Walter Breen, Barber became "sullen and totally uncooperative," and the sculptors spent months working around his objections.

Production was rocky. Philadelphia began striking the new dime on August 30, 1916, but within a week the telephone company and a vending machine maker complained that the coins would not work in their machines. The real problem was a fin, a rim struck too high. Weinman lowered the relief and moved LIBERTY slightly away from the rim; Treasury Secretary William McAdoo approved the change on September 28, and the new dime entered circulation on October 30, 1916, the day Barber dime production ended.

Adolph Weinman and the woman in the winged cap

Adolph Alexander Weinman was born in Germany and came to the United States as a teenager. He studied and worked under two of the country's most important sculptors, Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French. His dime and his Walking Liberty half dollar both debuted in 1916, a year some collectors call the annus mirabilis of American coinage, and he later taught Anthony de Francisci, designer of the Peace dollar. He died in 1952.

Weinman never named his model, and no one ever claimed to be her. She is widely believed to be Elsie Stevens, wife of the lawyer, insurance executive and poet Wallace Stevens; the couple rented an apartment from Weinman from 1909 to 1916, and their daughter Holly wrote in 1966 that her mother had been the model. Woolley recorded being told that the model wore the top of an old stocking to suggest the cap.

The cap is a Phrygian liberty cap with wings, which Weinman said stood for liberty of thought. The public immediately took the figure for the Roman god Mercury, and a letter in the January 1917 Numismatist appears to be the first collector reference to the "Mercury" dime. The reverse shows a fasces, the bundle of rods and axe carried before Roman magistrates, which Woolley described as a symbol of unity, wrapped by an olive branch for peace. In the early 1930s, as fascist movements rose in Europe, some Americans objected to the fasces, the emblem of Mussolini's party, appearing on the coin.

Why Denver stopped at 264,000

The new dime had to be coined at three mints, and the dies for Denver and San Francisco were still in transit when Philadelphia started. Denver struck only a small run. In November 1916, the new Mint director, Friedrich von Engelken, told the superintendents of a large order for quarters and instructed Denver to strike only quarters until it was filled; Breen likewise wrote that dime production in Denver was stopped so its staff could devote full time to quarters. Denver did not resume striking dimes until well into 1917.

Q. David Bowers notes that the first delivery of 1916-D dimes took place on December 29, so the coins did not reach circulation until 1917. And they did circulate, many for decades, which is why so many surviving examples are well worn. They passed unnoticed from hand to hand until coin boards and albums made collectors aware of which dates were scarce.

The year itself was extraordinary. The Mercury dime arrived alongside MacNeil's Standing Liberty quarter and Weinman's Walking Liberty half dollar, completing the renewal of American coinage that had begun with the gold coins of 1907 and 1908, the Lincoln cent of 1909 and the Buffalo nickel of 1913.

Identifying a 1916-D

The D mintmark sits on the reverse, just to the right of the word ONE. Weinman's monogram, an A under a W, appears on the obverse behind Liberty's neck, between the date and the Y of LIBERTY. Every genuine example is 90 percent silver, weighs 2.50 grams and measures about 17.9 millimeters across with a reeded edge.

Authentication matters more here than almost anywhere in 20th-century coinage. The usual fake adds a D to a genuine 1916 Philadelphia dime. David Hall, writing on a grading service's reference page, said he had seen counterfeits in all grades and that the service sees an average of five to ten fakes a week, and specialists advise buying only certified coins, even in grades as low as About Good.

This entry is graded PCGS AU50, in the About Uncirculated range just below Mint State. Mint State coins are genuinely rare; one estimate says 80 percent or more of them show fully struck crossbands, which collectors designate Full Bands and pay a premium for.

From pocket change to the record books

If you collected coins in the 1950s or 1960s, David Hall recalled, you dreamed of finding a 1916-D in circulation. The coin is in demand in every grade; even very low grade examples sell for more than $1,000, and a PCGS AU50 brought $12,000 at auction in November 2024.

The top of the market is a short list of MS67 Full Bands coins. The finest, with fire-red toning around the edge, sold for $128,800 in April 2001 and $195,500 in August 2010 as part of the Joshua II collection. In March 2020 it sold for $204,000 from the collection of D. Brent Pogue, then was upgraded to PCGS MS67+ Full Bands, the single finest certified. One grading-service narrative instead gives the 2020 price as $300,000; the auction roster for the coin and a separate trade report both give $204,000.

A grading service also lists an auction record of $207,000 for an MS67 Full Bands example sold on August 11, 2010, a price one trade publication calls the record for the date. Other MS67 Full Bands examples have sold for $97,750 in 2009, $88,125 and $152,750 in 2013, $94,130 in 2015 and $96,000 in 2018. Among coins without the Full Bands designation, a PCGS MS64+ set the auction record at $31,720 on May 2, 2026.

The key to a beloved series

The Mercury dime ran from 1916 to 1945, carrying the country through World War I, the Depression and World War II, and it was the last dime the Mint struck entirely in .900 silver. It was the dime of "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" and of countless comic-book advertisements, and on July 21, 1961, astronaut Gus Grissom carried 52 Mercury dimes into space aboard Mercury-Redstone 4.

After Franklin Roosevelt died in April 1945, the Treasury chose the dime to honor him because of his association with the March of Dimes, and the Roosevelt dime replaced Weinman's design in 1946. The Mint struck 2,677,232,488 Mercury dimes in all. Of those billions, the 264,000 from Denver in 1916 remain the key, the coin every set needs.

The numbers

Mintage

264,000

Known survivors

About 10,000 in all grades; about 100 Mint State; about 10 at MS65 or better (grading-service estimate)

Weight

2.50 grams

Diameter

17.90 mm

Composition

90% silver, 10% copper

Edge

Reeded

Designer

Adolph Alexander Weinman

Mint

Denver (D mintmark on the reverse)

Series total

2,677,232,488 Mercury dimes struck, 1916 to 1945

Timeline

1. Sep 26, 1890

   Congress allows coin designs to be changed without new legislation after 25 years.

2. 1892

   Charles E. Barber's dime, quarter and half dollar are introduced.

3. Dec 3, 1915

   Mint Director Robert Woolley meets the Commission of Fine Arts, which rejects Barber's sketches and invites three sculptors.

4. Feb 28, 1916

   Adolph Weinman learns his designs were chosen for the dime and half dollar.

5. Mar 3, 1916

   The Treasury publicly announces the new coin designs.

6. Aug 30, 1916

   Philadelphia begins striking the new dime; production is halted after vending and telephone companies complain.

7. Sep 28, 1916

   Treasury Secretary McAdoo approves Weinman's modified, lower-relief design.

8. Oct 30, 1916

   The Winged Liberty dime enters circulation.

9. Nov 1916

   Mint Director von Engelken orders Denver to strike only quarters until a large order is filled.

10. Dec 29, 1916

    The first 1916-D dimes are delivered; they reach circulation in 1917.

11. Jan 1917

    A letter in The Numismatist appears to be the first collector reference to the coin as the "Mercury" dime.

12. Feb 18, 1917

    Chief Engraver Charles Barber dies.

13. 1946

    The Roosevelt dime replaces the Mercury dime.

14. 1952

    Adolph Weinman dies.

15. Jul 21, 1961

    Gus Grissom carries 52 Mercury dimes into space aboard Mercury-Redstone 4.

16. Apr 2001

    The finest 1916-D, then PCGS MS67 Full Bands, sells for $128,800.

17. Aug 2010

    The same coin brings $195,500; a grading service also lists a $207,000 MS67 Full Bands sale that month, possibly the same coin.

18. Mar 20, 2020

    The finest 1916-D sells for $204,000 from the D. Brent Pogue collection, later upgraded to MS67+ Full Bands.

19. Nov 2024

    A PCGS AU50, the grade of this entry, brings $12,000 at auction.

20. May 2, 2026

    A PCGS MS64+ sets the auction record for a non-Full Bands 1916-D at $31,720.

The world in 1916

• Feb 21, 1916

  The Battle of Verdun begins in France.

• Mar 9, 1916

  Pancho Villa's raiders attack Columbus, New Mexico; President Wilson sends troops into Mexico.

• Jul 1, 1916

  The Battle of the Somme opens with more than 57,000 British Empire casualties on the first day.

• Aug 25, 1916

  President Wilson signs the law creating the National Park Service.

• Oct 16, 1916

  Margaret Sanger opens the first U.S. birth control clinic.

• Nov 7, 1916

  Wilson narrowly wins reelection, and Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman elected to the U.S. House.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1916-D Mercury Dime is number 91 of 100 in the coins entries of the FLOAT 100. 96 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (28 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The coin is not Mercury at all: it shows Liberty in a winged cap, which Weinman said stood for liberty of thought.
• The model is widely believed to be Elsie Stevens, wife of the poet Wallace Stevens, who rented an apartment from Weinman.
• Although dated 1916, the 1916-D dimes were first delivered on December 29 and reached circulation only in 1917.
• One grading service reported seeing five to ten counterfeit 1916-D dimes a week, most made by adding a D to a Philadelphia coin.
• Astronaut Gus Grissom carried 52 Mercury dimes into space in 1961.
• The first version of the dime was too high-rimmed for telephones and vending machines, and Weinman had to lower its relief.