United States
1 Dime "Mercury Dime" · “Mercury Dime”
United States · 1916–1945 · Silver
The coin
The story
The Mercury Dime: a coin that was never Mercury at all
In 1916 the U.S. Mint set out to make its coinage beautiful, and a sculptor named Adolph Weinman gave the ten-cent piece a face so fine that people mistook the goddess Liberty for the messenger god Mercury. The name stuck. The mistake stuck. And for thirty years it rode in pockets across two world wars and the Great Depression.
Read the full story