Destroyed 1916?D? Mercury?

Hello fellow coin nuts. So I got this 1916 Mercury dime that at some point in its 103 years was treated VERY badly. Now was it a trickster attempting to confuse for money or a jilted lover destroying a prized posession? Ive been looking at this thing and can see a D or no D at different times. Mint mark location is gouged to death. Can anyone else make out a D or even better, is there a die marker for a 1916D I could still find elsewhere on this poor wounded and worn silver soldier? Any help would be great. Its either a filler or scrap...lol

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

No, not a D. Looks more like a crushed S mintmark to me.

1916 D dimes are even rarer than 1909 S VDB cents, so it would be highly unlikely that you had a 1916 D dime.

 

Looks like a well worn S.

 

Spend it

 

Noooo! It's still worth 10x face, or silver melt. Why spend it?

 

Also not seeing a D. Odds are it's an S.
1916-S in FR-02/AG-03 still worth over melt.

 

Lol, @paddyman98 is so used to the coins being zincolns, spend it is his automatic answer

 

Sell it for melt, then spend the money.

 

Looks like someone tried to make a D and failed. See all the scratch marks around it?

 

This is maybe the only time I would like to see the mintmark location under some high powered magnification. I first saw an “S”. Then after I read @C-B-D post I looked again and agree that it looks like a poor attempt at an altered mint mark. I wonder what some magnification may show?

 

The blob is not in the correct position to be a D, this is a 1916-S.

 

"1916 D dimes are even rarer than 1909 S VDB cents, so it would be highly unlikely that you had a 1916 D dime."

Neither coin is at all rare.

 

What do you base your statement on?

1916 D Mercury Dimes had a mintage of 264,000. 1909 S VDB cents had a mintage of 484,000.

Also, if "neither coin is at all rare", why are people paying hundreds of dollars for them?

Mintage:

https://coinmintages.com/mercury-dimes-mintage/

http://www.cointrackers.com/coins/13495/1909-s-vdb-wheat-penny/

Ebay Auctions:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1916-D-Mer...426442&hash=item5219c06c27:g:4wgAAOSwM7lcjX0L

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1909-S-VDB...967441?hash=item2ac7a2e351:g:2AYAAOSws1ZckICA

 

I think he's saying they are easy to find and buy. You don't have to look hard.

 

Interesting coin...

 

Looks like an S mint to me.

 

Nice coin to have anyway - it has had quite a life.

 

https://www.coinworld.com/news/us-coins/2011/09/a-puzzling-counterfeit.all.html

 

Randy...any extreme magnification of the mint mark location will look like craters on the moon.

Spark

 

Was offline a couple days...thanks so much for the responses ladies and gentlemen. Yea, someone really did take out some hate on that poor thing...and NO!!!! I will NOT be spending it paddyman!! Lmfao....lol....some of my crazy funny lookin zincolns maybe but not the silva!!!! Lol.....thx fellow coiners!!!