In my estimation the mint could have done a bit better job on the dime, particularly in doing FSB in the bands in the fasces on the reverse. I've bought the dime so far, would like to find a nice quarter and half. That said, I like the gold commemoratives of the 1916 coins much better than the 2021 silver dollar commems.
I agree. I can't think of a reason they didn't strike full bands on the Mercury dime. It wasn't that they weren't struck properly they didn't add that feature to the dies. The one thing Mercury dime collectors look for is split bands but, don't looking for them on the gold version. I was interested in getting one until I spotted that in the pictures of the coin.
Someone forgot maybe at best or lack of leadership before having a director maybe. Whatever it was it was a bad execution from that standpoint alone.
Dies are destroyed, but they may keep master hubs. Note they still had the master hubs for the 1964 Peace dollar and proposed 1964 Morgan dollar. Yes I remember it. Canada kept the gold coins they had, the US melted down all the gold coins that came in from Roosevelt's recall. Constitution was 1787, and look at many of the commemorative coins they have made. May of them a dual dated. The mint can't go back and make new coins with older dates, that is illegal. And I would bet the coins being sold by the Royal mint are not newly struck coins either.