So, it is easy to see why the 1916-D is a true rarity.īut why were so few 1916-D dimes struck? No one knows, but the Barber dime was still in production at both the Philadelphia and San Francisco Mints.
While it’s counterparts, the 1916, struck at the Philadelphia Mint, has a mintage of 22,180,080 and the 1916-S, struck at the San Francisco Mint, has a mintage of 10,450,000. The 1916-D dime, struck at the Denver Mint, has the lowest mintage of the series – 264,000 coins. One of the coins struck during the Mercury Dime’s inaugural year, 1916, is unquestionably the rarest coin in the set. To learn more about the story behind these coins, check out our Mercury Dimes history article. The Mercury Dime series spanned both World Wars I and II. The series ended in 1945, replaced by the Roosevelt dime, issued to honor the president that saw America through the Great Depression and World War II. It was influenced by both former President Teddy Roosevelt and sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The Mercury Dime was first struck in 1916, during the renaissance of American Coinage.
