1938-S 10c

Coin / United States of America / 1938 / San Francisco / Mercury Dimes / 10c

The 1938-S Mercury dime is a common coin by all accounts, with plentiful specimens in all circulated grades and thousands of uncirculated Full Bands specimens. This piece is readily available through MS66 and much scarcer in higher grades through MS68. The 1938-S Mercury dime set an incredible price record for this series when a rainbow-mottled example graded PCGS/CAC MS68 took a whopping $364,250 in June 2019.

coinage-type Winged liberty head (Mercury) dime
desg MS
designer Adolph A. Weinman
diameter 17.9
edge Reeded
fineness 0.9
material 90% silver; 10% copper
mint-mark S
mintage 8,090,000
ngc-id 23JP
obverse-description Winged Liberty, or Mercury (the Roman god of commerce), is depicted facing left with LIBERTY spelled around the periphery. IN GOD WE TRUST appears left of the neck and the date is positioned just below the bust around 5 o'clock. The designer's initials "AW" appear to the right of the neck.
pcgs-link 5014
pcgs-number 5014
reverse-description A large torch is centered vertically adorned with an axe head and olive branches. UNITED STATES OF AMERICAN * ONE DIME * is spelled out around the periphery. Mint mark, if any, appears near the bottom rim left of the torch.
weight-grams 2.5
weight-ounces 0.07234
year-display 1916-1945