I also love the "Mercury" Dime! Our Coin Community Fourm is
the place for information about all our
US coins. The Navigation Bar to the left lists US Coin History.
This is a partial quote from the US Winged Liberty Dime: (note the red quote near the end...)
Despite its tiny size, the "Mercury" dime may very well be the most beautiful coin ever produced by the United States Mint. It is truly remarkable that a coin this small could have such an intricate and aesthetically pleasing design.
One thing its design does not depict, however, is Mercury, the messenger of the gods in Roman mythology. The portrait on its obverse is actually that of Liberty wearing a winged cap symbolizing freedom of thought. Thus, the coin more properly is known as the Winged Head Liberty dime. But the misnomer "Mercury" was applied to it early on, and after many years of common usage, has stuck.
Whatever it's called, this dime represented a welcome change of pace when it made its first appearance in 1916. Indeed, it served to symbolize more than freedom of thought: it also was a symbol of America's new spirit, an exuberance reflected in the freshness and vitality of the new U.S. coinage as a whole in the early 1900s. The coin it replaced, the stodgy
Barber dime, was rooted in the 19th century, a time when American life was more rigid and formal. In an artistic sense, this new coin was a breath of fresh air, even though its inspiration went all the way back to the ancient Greeks and Romans.
Clearly, the Mint and Treasury believed it was time for a change. Under an 1890 law, they couldn't replace a coin design without approval from Congress more frequently than every 25 years. The
Barber dime, quarter and half dollar, first produced in 1892, reached the quarter-century mark in 1916, and the Mint wasted no time in replacing all three.
Actually, the Mint began laying the groundwork in the closing days of 1915, when it set the stage for a special competition to obtain new designs for the coins. Mint Director Robert W. Woolley invited three noted sculptors, Hermon A. MacNeil, Albin Polasek and Adolph A. Weinman, all of New York City, to prepare designs for the three silver coins, apparently with the intention of awarding a different coin to each artist.
Whatever the Mint's intention may have been, Weinman ended up getting two of the three coins, the dime and half dollar, with MacNeil getting the quarter dollar and Polasek being shut out. But few would quibble with the selections, for all three of the new coins, the
Mercury dime, the
Standing Liberty quarter and the
Walking Liberty half dollar, inevitably appear on `most collectors' lists of the finest U.S. coins ever made.
The German-born Weinman had come to the United States in 1880 at the age of 10, had studied under the famed Augustus Saint-Gaudens and by 1915 had gained a reputation as one of the nation's leading young sculptors. He solidified this standing with his artwork for the dime.
It's generally believed that the Winged Liberty portrait is based upon a bust that Weinman did in 1913 of Elsie Kachel Stevens, wife of well-known poet Wallace Stevens. She and her husband were tenants at the time in a New York City apartment house owned by the sculptor.
The reverse of the coin depicts the fasces, an ancient symbol of authority, with a battle-ax atop it to represent preparedness and an olive branch beside it to signify love and peace. With World War I raging in Europe, these were emotional themes in 1916.
Welcome to the Forum! It RULES!!
Posted 04/16/2010 12:54 am
It does RULE!
