Semi-Numismatic

1919-S Mercury Dime VF

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Struck at the San Francisco Mint, this 1919 silver ten-cent piece represents a classic era of American coinage. Composed of 90 percent silver, the coin contains 0.0715 troy ounces of precious metal. It survives today in a graded state of Very Fine, showing the honest wear of a coin that once circulated actively in early twentieth-century commerce. The coin features a famous obverse illustration by Adolph Weinman, which portrays a youthful personification of Liberty. She wears a winged Phrygian cap, a distinctive headpiece that historically led the public to mistake her for the Roman messenger god, Mercury, giving the series its popular nickname. The front also bears the traditional national motto, "IN GOD WE TRUST," alongside the 1919 date. On the reverse, Weinman's design displays a traditional fasces, a bundle of rods bound around an ax, paired with an olive branch. This side of the coin carries the inscriptions "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA," "ONE DIME," and the Latin phrase "E PLURIBUS UNUM." The "S" mint mark is also visible, indicating its origin at the West Coast minting facility.