Mercury Dime Melt Value

As of July 18, 2026, with silver at $56.01 per troy ounce, a Mercury dime has a melt value of $4.05. Each dime carries 0.0723 troy ounces of pure silver, so ten of them ($1 face value) hold about $40.50 worth of metal at the current price.

The calculation is fixed by the coin's specification: 2.50 grams gross weight, 90 percent silver, which converts to 2.25 grams or 0.0723 troy ounces of pure metal per dime. Every Mercury dime from 1916 through 1945 shares that exact silver content; date and mint mark affect collector value only. See how the dime compares with quarters, halves, and dollars on the silver coin melt values table, or price a roll instantly with the junk silver calculator.

It is a nickname born of a misunderstanding. Sculptor Adolph A. Weinman's 1916 design actually depicts a young Liberty wearing a winged Phrygian cap, the wings symbolizing freedom of thought; the official name is the Winged Liberty Head dime. The public saw the winged cap and thought of Mercury, the Roman messenger god, and the nickname stuck so thoroughly that even dealers use it today. Weinman was one of the most accomplished sculptors ever to design US coinage, and in the same year his Walking Liberty half dollar also entered circulation, making 1916 a landmark year for American coin design. The series ran through 1945, ending when the Roosevelt dime replaced it in 1946. Because the design is loved by collectors and stackers alike, circulated Mercury dimes typically command slightly higher premiums than the more common Roosevelt silver dimes, despite carrying identical silver content of 0.0723 ounces per coin.

Each row below multiplies the dime's 0.0723 ounces of silver by a round spot price, so you can bracket its melt value wherever the market goes.

Mercury dimes share these specifications with all other 90 percent silver US dimes, including the Roosevelt (1946 to 1964) and earlier Barber series.

Most circulated common dates from the 1930s and 1940s trade as junk silver, at melt plus a modest premium that runs a little above Roosevelt dime pricing because of the design's popularity. The exceptions are dramatic. The 1916-D, struck in Denver to a mintage of just 264,000, is the key to the entire series and is valuable in any grade; it is also heavily counterfeited by adding a fake D mint mark to Philadelphia coins, so authentication matters. Better-date coins from the early 1920s and coins with fully struck horizontal bands on the reverse fasces (graded Full Bands) also bring collector premiums well above melt. The safe workflow: value any accumulation at melt first with the live figure above, then pull aside anything dated before 1931 for a closer look before selling it as bullion.