How much is a 1906 mercury dime worth?

Answer 1

The funny thing about this is I have been told repeatedly that a 1906 Mercury dime doesn't exist and it must be a 1916 dime but my dime is clearly marked 1906.A coin dealer told be it can't be valued as it is not listed so it appears you and I now hold a 1906 mercury dime which is said not to exist!

MoreThe information that there's no such coin is absolutely correct. The design wasn't prepared until 1915 and the coins were first issued in mid-1916 so a "1906 Mercury dime" would be about as likely to exist as an mp3 player from 1970.

There are at least 3 possibilities:

1. You have a 1906 Barber dime, named for its designer Charles Barber. The image of Miss Liberty is similar but she doesn't have a winged liberty cap.

2. It's a 1916 Mercury dime with damage or deliberate alteration to the "1" in the date. Because of their small size dimes are prone to an error called a filled die. That happens when some crud gets caught in the tiny recess that forms a letter or number when the coin is struck. The gunk alters the appearance of the character; sometimes it doesn't show at all, as happened when a filled die obliterated the D mintmark on some 1922 cents made in Denver.

3. Someone made a fantasy piece, or was trying to counterfeit a genuine Mercury dime but got the date wrong. It's happened before - look up "Henning nickels" and "1865 Washington quarters" for example.