Weird Coating On Mercury Dime?

Any chance of a really poor casting or maybe damage from a fire?

that was my first thoughts also.

I'm no expert but my first thought was fire damage because it just looks like heat caused some bubbling. But the damage is very even. If it was either dipped or in a fire, wouldn't the rim show some sign of damage. Maybe the rim holds some clue. If the rim isn't damaged, maybe that IS a clue.

I'd keep it, just because someday you will see something similar and know the cause. But I keep just about everything.

This is really an odd one.


Don't think so Conder101. Note the swirly look to those lines. A wire wheel would be more straight. What gets me is the chin and neck and most of the face is apparently doubled. On the reverse many of the letters are also doubled in appearances. Note especially the ONE.
Odd too is almost all letters are present except the date.
I really would like to know what happened to this coin. No acid treatment could make all those doubled effects.

The more I look at an enlargement, the wierder this coin looks. Note on the obverse all the letters are shown at the top of the coin, although distorted, but at the bottom, letters are all messed up completely.
This effect is carried onto the reverse where the top is clearer than the bottom which is the top of the obverse.
This would have actually been a nice or different appearance on a new type Dime rather than our present ones.

I wish I could shed some light. I got it in a purchase. I can tell you it is not a paint. Do you think someone tried to do something like electroplate it?

Do we all agree this is post mint?

I've seen a lot of dateless Buffalo nickels where someone restored the date and then put varnish or clear nail polish over the date to preserve their work. The color of this dime is very similar to the color of the stuff painted over the dates on the nickels. It makes me wonder if someone dipped or painted the whole dime and THIS is how it dried. It's also possible that the waviness is a distorted fingerprint pattern...as in someone picking it up while it was still wet with whatever the substance is. The big question is whether that's a substance or the actual surface of the dime. I'm betting substance. The types of "acids" out there that people typically use to restore dates on nickels should not have had this pronounced of an affect on a 90% silver dime...and even if it did, I would expect the suface to be much more uniform looking - not wavy. If it's a substance, it's a good bet that acetone would remove it. And, as has been noted frequently in this forum, acetone is a coin-friendly solvent and wouldn't adversely affect the actual surface of the coin.

Sand blasted?