United States: 1944-D silver Winged Liberty ("Mercury") dime

United States: 1944-D silver Winged Liberty ("Mercury") dime

PCGS MS66 FB. Cert. #42157118.

Numista-51, Krause-Mishler-140.

Mintage: 62,224,000.

Ex-Bob Holston, dba "Mint State Coin", via Collectors Corner storefront, 20 March 2023.

"Mercury dime" is something of a misnomer, as the obverse of this coin portrays Miss Liberty, not the Roman god Mercury. The confusion arose because Mercury had winged sandals on his feet, not his head (though some modern depictions of him do show a winged helmet, too). Liberty's winged headdress was intended to symbolize freedom of thought. So the public tagged the coin with the technically erroneous "Mercury dime" nickname, and that name stuck. Besides, it's shorter and easier to say than "Winged Liberty dime", which is the correct name.

Fifty years ago, on November 25, 1976, when I was not quite eleven years old, we were visiting my step-grandmother's big old house in Atlanta. The adults preparing Thanksgiving dinner wanted me out of the kitchen, so I was asked to set the table. In Grandmama's silverware drawer, I found a 1936 Mercury dime. She let me keep it, and that exciting little treasure started my numismatic adventure. I still have that coin somewhere. When I found it as a kid, the coin was forty years old, which seemed incredibly ancient to me at the time. And now fifty more years have passed since that Thanksgiving day, which I so fondly remember.

I bought this particular example, a 1944-D, for my type set. It is a very common date. Typically I am less interested in Mercury dimes from the 1940s, since they are so much more plentiful. I could have opted for a less common date. But 1944 was my mother's birthyear, so that's why I chose this coin. Besides, it is a nicely lustrous Supergem example with Full Bands on the reverse.



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Wow! Started off with a key date! That's awesome.