Hi coin people! I am just an amatuer coin collector in that I still have my penny, nickel and dime albums and mint sets from my childhood and save the occassional wheat penny I find in my change. That said, please bear with me when I do not use the proper terminology. My mother recently gave me a few old dimes. One is a 1919 dime that is not a mercury dime if that is at all possible. Instead of the goddess Liberty on the front and the fasces on the back it features the barber Liberty on front and "one dime" laurel wreath on back. It is dfntly dated 1919. This coin is very worn down, very thin compared to my other mercury dimes from this period and has no ridges on the side. Is this really a 1919 dime?
Yes it is a real dime from your images. And yes very worn down. These were Barber dimes ,the series also had quarter and half dollars .
I hate to tell you this, but it is not a 1919 Winged Liberty Dime. It is a 1910 Liberty Head Dime. Chris
I am not a dime expert by any means, and the photo isn't great, but to me that date looks like 1910 with a gouge in the 0 making it look more like a 9. That would fit more with it being a Barber style design.
Chris is right , 1910 is the correct date on this coin. If you notice, the last digit doesn't taper enough on the bottom curve to be a 9. There are instances where mint workers did create some clandestine issues. 1913 Liberty 5c is probably the most famous. If your dime was a 1917, then you would have something there worth pursuing.
Why would you hate to tell me that? That is COOL! After I posted, I was thinking - oh, maybe it's a slug. Now it's my oldest dome. Awesome!!!
Because I wouldn't want you to spend the rest of your life thinking that Charles Barber was Adolph Weinman. Chris
Did you know that Barber so didn't like the idea of replacing his designs on circulating coinage that he purposefully delayed the release of some of these new coins? The Mercury Dime wasn't released until Halloween in 1916.
It doesn't surprise me. Personally, I never liked Barber. He had no creative talent. In my opinion, he used the same obverse design on his coins to glorify himself rather than liberty. Chris
I don't think that the historical opinion of Mr. Barber is very high but consider this, from a technical standpoint his designs were very good in that they struck up well from obverse to reverse and didn't have problems other coins "more artistically designed" had, like high points opposing each other on opposite sides of the coin.
Barber dimes were minted from 1892 to 1916. You have a 1910 which has suffered the slings and arrows of actually being used as a dime. Which was real money back then...
The delay wasn't caused by Barber, it was the result of delays caused by outside telephone and vending machine producers wanting constant modifications to the designs to make them work better in their machines.
No talent? You are aware he designed the 1915 Pan Pac half dollar and the obverse of the Pan Pac quarter eagle, right? He also did a couple of interesting pattern coins.
Well I wouldn't say he was no talent, but I wouldn't say he was much better than mediocre. And like a lot of artists once he got one thing to work right he tended to use it over and over with modifications.
