VINTAGE 1916 1917 1919-S Mercury Dimes Lot of 7 Early 90% Silver US Coins

A group of seven vintage Mercury dimes dating from the earliest years of the series: four dated 1916, two dated 1917, and one dated 1919.

Included:
• 4 – 1916 Mercury Dimes
• 2 – 1917 Mercury Dimes
• 1 – 1919 Mercury Dime

One of the 1919 dimes appears to carry an “S” mint mark for San Francisco. The remaining mint marks are either absent or too worn for me to identify confidently. Please refer closely to the photographs, including the enlarged detail images, and make your own assessment.

Officially known as the Winged Liberty Head dime, the coin is almost universally called the “Mercury dime” because Liberty’s winged cap was quickly mistaken for the Roman god Mercury. Designed by sculptor Adolph A. Weinman, the series was introduced in 1916 and continued through 1945.

These are 90% silver U.S. coins and are being offered as circulated, ungraded examples. They show substantial honest wear from use, with softened or lost detail, scratches, toning, discoloration and other evidence of age and circulation. They have not been cleaned or polished by me.

And that wear may be the most interesting thing about them.

These little pieces of silver didn't spend their lives tucked safely into a collector's album. They circulated. They were spent, received as change, tucked into pockets and purses, counted out on counters, and spent again.

When the first four of these dimes were struck in 1916, Woodrow Wilson was President. The United States had not yet entered World War I. A dime was real spending money: it might have helped buy a loaf of bread, paid a streetcar fare, or bought some small everyday necessity.

By 1917, America was at war. Perhaps one of these dimes jingled in the pocket of a young man preparing to leave for France. Perhaps another crossed the counter of a neighborhood grocery, drugstore or lunch counter back home.

And the 1919 dime entered circulation as American soldiers were coming home and the country was beginning the transition from wartime into the decade we would come to call the Roaring Twenties.

Of course, we can't know where these particular coins have been or whose hands they've passed through. But more than a century of wear tells us something wonderful:

These coins weren't merely minted during history. They participated in it.

Sold together as the group of seven shown. Please examine all photographs carefully; they are an important part of the description and show the actual coins you will receive.

Shipping included in the US.