Mercury Dimes Differences

There are technically three obverse subtypes for Mercury dimes. The type of 1916 (used in 1916 and part of 1917), the type of 1917 (used for the majority of 1917) and the type of 1918 (used for the rest of the series). The style/font of the date did change from year to year and there were some mintmark varieties, but there were no other deliberate design changes.

The master hub *did* show wear and damage over the course of the series. Most notably, there was a significant loss of detail on the center of the reverse between 1925 and 1926.

The differences you see in the motto there are probably a combination of die wear, die polishing and circulation wear.

The principle differences are in the hair and feathers. The type of 1916 are also noticeably higher relief in-hand, though this is harder to see in pictures. Also, the type of 1916 has a textured/pebbled surface which gives them a different luster than later issues in early-mid die state. For 1917, there was a change in mintmark style that coincided with the new type. The differences between the type of 1917 and type of 1918 is very slight (mostly a subtle change to the ends of the feathers).


1916 Mercury Dime by CaptainFwiffo, on Flickr


1917 Mercury dime (type of 1916) by CaptainFwiffo, on Flickr


1917-D Mercury dime (type of 1917) by CaptainFwiffo, on Flickr


1923 Mercury Dime by CaptainFwiffo, on Flickr

I don't currently have an MS example of the type of 1917. Actually, now that I look at them, I'm suddenly less sure about about that 1917-D. The obverse looks like a type-of-1917 to me but the mintmark looks like the old style, and I though the new mintmark style was always paired with the new type...

Differences described in detail here:
http://blog.davidlawrence.com/index...difications/