OK, I'll bite before I go to bed. Modern US Design Varieties is the area of one of my focuses. Knowing and identifying design varieties is extremely helpful in counterfeit detection. Let's start by what it appears not to be. First, the portrait and letter placement does not appear to be the post-millennium ODV-017. So, it would appear to be a pre-2000 dime. ODV-001 through ODV-013 had a W in IGWT that had a higher apex than that in the font shown on this dime. Also, the pre-1981 lettering is closer to the edge. So, that will reduce the possibilities to ODV-014 through ODV-016. The photo is not clear enough for me to be certain if the G has a serif or is a straight G, but the O does not appear to be a round O, so I will discount ODV-014. Finally, considering the N, it could be a later die state, however, it does appear to be a thicker font all around in IGWT. So I will discount ODV-015, leaving ODV-016. So, I would guess 1996. The only qualm I have is the placement of the mint mark. The 1996 mint mark placement should be visible on your coin as the ones I have seen are generally placed higher than most of the ODV-015 mint mark placements I have seen.
@NPCoin, I admire a numismatist who knows the design types of spending money. Thanks for the education. Let's see how you did.
Wow! I'll need to look through the ODV-010 dimes I come across more closely. I usually check the 1968 dimes more closely to see if there are any ODV-010/ODV-012 transitions, but have never seen IGWT so far from the edge, nor with that typeface on W. If there are enough examples in different die states, maybe a new design variety can be confirmed? @Insider, am I missing something here? Such a slight misalignment wouldn't affect the placement of the IGWT with respects to the edge to such a degree, would it? Thanks! I want to say that 1968 was the actual date on first sight...the B in LIBERTY does not match what I usually see with ODV-015/016. But, with someone else's guess of 1968 coming out, I would like to lean toward my original thought, but still, IGWT trust does not fit for me. I personally don't like relying on the first 15 seconds of a glance.
@Insider, am I missing something here? Such a slight misalignment wouldn't affect the placement of the IGWT with respects to the edge to such a degree, would it? Thanks![/QUOTE] I don't know all the transitional types of our coins. Usually, I learn about them when I need to research a submission. That's what happened with the torch varieties of Roosevelt dimes.
Nice! So it was ODV-015 after all. And, yes, it does have an "older" look to it. A great site for design varieties is James Wiles' Variety Vista. There's a wealth of information and photos there to help also in trying to identify coins. On some few select coins, you would be able to identify a dateless coin's date simply by the die variety pairs, or at least have a good date range.
