Mercury Dime Mintage

The most popular design for the ten cent denomination is the Mercury Dime, or Wing Liberty Head Dime, which was produced from 1916 to 1945. During this time period mintages varied widely from just a few hundred thousand for the well known key date to more than 200 million for some years. Assembling an a collection for each date and mint mark within the series is an ambitious but approachable goal for collectors.

1944 Mercury Dime
1944 Mercury Dime

Designed by Adolph A. Weinman, the obverse of the coin features a portrait of Liberty facing left. She wears a winged cap, which led to the popular moniker for the series. It is often noted that the Roman god Mercury actually had wings on his feet. The obverse inscriptions are “LIBERTY,” “IN GOD WE TRUST,” and the date. On the reverse is a Roman fasces, which consists of sticks bound around an axe, and an olive branch. The inscriptions are “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,” “ONE DIME,” and “E PLURIBUS UNUM.”

Mercury Dime Notes:

  • There are a total of 77 different date and mint mark combinations, including coins struck at the Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco Mints.
  • Across all issues of the series, there were 2,676,523,880 coins produced. This is more than five times the production of the previous Barber Dime series, which had roughly the same number of issues.
  • The peak mintage occurred with the 1944 Mercury Dime, with 231,410,000 coins struck at the Philadelphia Mint.
  • The lowest mintage issue and famous key date is the 1916-D Mercury Dime. There were a scant 264,000 pieces minted and most were well circulated before being saved by collectors.
  • The average mintage across all issues is 34,760,050.

Mercury Dime Mintages:

IssueMintage
191622,180,080
1916-D264,000
1916-S10,450,000
191755,230,000
1917-D9,402,000
1917-S27,330,000
191826,680,000
1918-D22,674,800
1918-S19,300,000
191935,740,000
1919-D9,939,000
1919-S8,850,000
192059,030,000
1920-D19,171,000
1920-S13,820,000
19211,230,000
1921-D1,080,000
192350,130,000
1923-S6,440,000
192424,010,000
1924-D6,810,000
1924-S7,120,000
192525,610,000
1925-D5,117,000
1925-S5,850,000
192632,160,000
1926-D6,828,000
1926-S1,520,000
192728,080,000
1927-D4,812,000
1927-S4,770,000
192819,480,000
1928-D4,161,000
1928-S7,400,000
192925,970,000
1929-D5,034,000
1929-S4,730,000

Mercury Dime Mintages Continued:

IssueMintage
19306,770,000
1930-S1,843,000
19313,150,000
1931-D1,260,000
1931-S1,800,000
193424,080,000
1934-D6,772,000
193558,830,000
1935-D10,477,000
1935-S15,840,000
193687,500,000
1936 Proof4,130
1936-D16,132,000
1936-S9,210,000
193756,860,000
1937 Proof5,756
1937-D14,146,000
1937-S9,740,000
193822,190,000
1938 Proof8,728
1938-D5,537,000
1938-S8,090,000
193967,740,000
1939 Proof9,321
1939-D24,394,000
1939-S10,540,000
194065,350,000
1940 Proof11,827
1940-D21,198,000
1940-S21,560,000
1941175,090,000
1941 Proof16,557
1941-D45,634,000
1941-S43,090,000
1942205,410,000
1942 Proof22,329
1942-D60,740,000
1942-S49,300,000
1943191,710,000
1943-D71,949,000
1943-S60,400,000
1944231,410,000
1944-D62,224,000
1944-S49,490,000
1945159,130,000
1945-D40,245,000
1945-S41,290,000
Source: MercuryDime.net