Strange things were happening at the San Francisco Mint in 1945. After striking the dime for a few months and applying the normal "S" mintmark successfully to them, the well-worn die needed to be replaced. After replacing the die, dime production resumed. After the mintage was completed, an error was discovered: the "S" mintmark on the the latter-struck dimes was microscopic in size compared to the earlier normal "S". It was discovered the die used on the latter-struck 1945 dimes was a die created to apply the "S" mintmark to Phillipine coins produced by the San Francisco Mint for use on Phillipines coins dated 1907 to 1920, 15 to 30 years earlier. To this day no one knows how or why this happened. By the way, in grades Good to Extra Fine the micro "S" dime is slightly worth more than the regular "S", but in higher grades it far outshines it. Let me know if you enjoyed this trivia, Clinker
Bqcoins,can you please post some photos so that we know what to look out for when searching through Mercury Dimes? Aidan.
Keep the trivia coming Clinker. It's a wasted day if you go to bed knowing nothing that you didn't know when you woke up.
