Silver calculator / Coin guide
Winged Liberty (Mercury) dimes, 1916-1945
Mercury Dime Value: Silver and Date Checks
The Winged Liberty design is commonly called the Mercury dime. The melt estimate concerns the silver alone. A small mark can change which issue a coin is, so read the date and mint together before deciding whether to treat it as bulk silver.
Silver spot
$51.75/ozt
Metal prices by MetalChartsUSD per troy ounce. As of . Fetched .
Estimated melt per coin
$3.74
Metal prices by MetalChartsUses the dated spot shown here and nominal silver content; no offer or collectible premium.
Price may be out of date. The saved quote is older than 36 hours or flagged stale. Check the source before relying on a metal estimate.
Melt value is an estimate of the silver content only, at the dated spot price shown. It is not an offer to buy or sell, and not investment advice. Dealer offers are often below melt, and collectible coins can be worth more.
Silver content and the formula
Nominal total weight: 2.50 g. Composition: 90% silver. Silver content: 2.25 g, approximately 0.07234 troy ounces per coin.
Standard weight and fineness set by the Coinage Act of 1873, sections 13 and 15 (linked below). Ounce values are rounded for display; calculations use silver grams divided by 31.1034768.
Melt value (USD) = (2.25 g ÷ 31.1034768 g/ozt) × silver spot (USD/ozt).
Source: Coinage Act of 1873, sections 13 and 15, 17 Stat. 426-427. Nominal original weights are used; wear and loss of metal can lower actual silver content. A troy ounce is different from the ordinary household ounce.
What can make one worth more?
The Mint records 264,000 Denver dimes in 1916, compared with 1,080,000 in 1921. These low-output combinations deserve individual research. A purported key date should be authenticated; a low mintage is not proof of authenticity.
Date, mint mark and condition
Wear can obscure the date or mint mark. Do not fill in a missing digit from expectations or call a damaged coin a mint error.
Keep the date, mint and any suspected variety together in your notes. A mint mark identifies a production location; it is not a grade. Preserve the surfaces rather than cleaning a coin to make it look brighter. If an unusual coin warrants professional assessment, have it graded by PCGS or NGC; neither service sponsors this guide.
Suspected errors need authentication
Doubled-looking letters, a weak design or unusual color can have more than one explanation. This guide does not identify an error variety from a description or assign a premium. A damaged or altered coin is not automatically a mint error. Obtain an independent assessment before attaching a variety name or collectible value.
Mint-report production records
These are the manufacturing counts and categories stated in the linked Mint publications, not a survival census or a grade-price table. They can include proofs, assay pieces and production outside the year on the coin. They should not be substituted silently for circulation-strike catalog mintages.
| Issue and report category | Pieces | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Dimes struck at Denver in calendar year 1916 | 264,000 | Director of the Mint, Domestic and Foreign Coins 1792-1965, table C27, printed p. 50 |
| Dimes struck at Denver in calendar year 1921 | 1,080,000 | Director of the Mint, Domestic and Foreign Coins 1792-1965, table C27, printed p. 50 |
Sources and corrections
Last checked: . Weight/composition: Coinage Act of 1873, sections 13 and 15, 17 Stat. 426-427. Production sources are linked beside every count above. No PCGS, NGC or Red Book price-guide tables or descriptions are reproduced.
If a date, composition or count is wrong, send a correction with the source and page number. We review corrections and log changes in the source record.