Although the Mercury Dime is one of the most popular coins ever produced by the US Mint, most people can't answer most, if any, of these questions.
How many can you answer? 1.
Why is Mercury on a United States coin? 2.
Mercury had wings on his sandals, why are there wings on Mercury's hat? 3.
What's that thing on the back of the coin? 4.
What metal is the Mercury Dime made of? 5.
What years were the Mercury Dime produced? We'll start with the easiest question first.
Production of the Mercury Dime began in 1916.
The "Merc" replaced the Barber Dime, which many people considered to be one of the least interesting coins ever produced.
The US Mint continued making the Mercury Dime through 1945, by which time more than 2.
6 billion of the coins had been struck.
The coin measures 17.
9 millimeters in diameter, and weighs in at 2.
5 grams.
It is made of 90% silver and 10% copper.
This means that in every Mercury Dime there are 0.
0723 Troy ounces of silver.
So even a damaged Mercury Dime is worth more than ten cents! Now let's jump to the biggest misconception about the coin.
I hope you are sitting down, because this may come as quite a shock to you.
It's not Mercury.
The obverse (heads) side of the coin actually portrays the goddess Liberty.
The wings on Liberty's cap symbolized freedom of thought.
The coin's designer, Adolph Alexander Weinman, had created a sculpture of Elsie Kachel Stevens years earlier.
Although it is not certain, most people believe that the portrait of Liberty is based on that work.
The reverse (tails) of the coin consists of a Fasces, which is an axe the handle of which has been surrounded with a tied bundle of sticks, and an olive branch.
The Fasces symbolizes the fact that although a single stick may be easily broken, bound together they are far stronger than any one of them.
In the same way, the states bound themselves together to form a strong Union.
The axe indicates that the nation is ready for whatever military challenges may come its way, but the olive branch indicates the desire for peace.
You say you've never seen a fasces before? The mace of the U.
S.
House of Representatives is actually a fasces, and two fasces appear on either side of the flag of the United States in the House chamber, symbolizing the power of the House and of the country.
After the death of President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, in 1945, the nation clamored for some sort of memorial to the man who had led the nation through World War II.
It was decided that the design of the dime would be changed to honor FDR.
The Roosevelt Dime made its first appearance in 1946.