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90% silver · 1916–1945

Mercury dime melt value

The Mercury dime — properly the Winged Liberty Head — was struck from 1916 to 1945 in the same 90% silver as every other US dime of the era. Most are worth their silver; a handful are worth a great deal more.

Melt value, one coin

0.0723 ozt silver · 90% silver

0.0723 ozt silver2.5 g at 90%

Silver content
0.0723 ozt
Struck weight
2.5 g
Silver spot
Per $1 face

The silver price shown was recorded when this page was published. Figures calculated from it appear once the live price loads, so nothing here is worked out from a number the market may have left behind.

Do not sell this coin by weight without checking it. Check for 1916-D and 1942/1 before selling any Mercury dimes by weight. Those two dates are worth hundreds to thousands of times melt, and they turn up in inherited jars more often than you would expect.

Value a lot

Metal content only — not a dealer offer
coins

Count only mercury dimes from 1916–1945. Coins outside those years look similar and hold different silver, or none.

Melt value of the lot

1.447 ozt of silver

Face value of the lot

What the coins say they are worth

$2.00

Common lots

By face value, as the trade quotes it
LotMercury dimesSilverMelt value
$1 faceFour quarters100.72 ozt
$5 faceA half roll of quarters503.62 ozt
$10 faceA common small lot1007.23 ozt
$50 faceA half bag50036.17 ozt
$100 faceThe standard trading unit1,00072.34 ozt

Before you sell

Check for 1916-D and 1942/1 before selling any Mercury dimes by weight. Those two dates are worth hundreds to thousands of times melt, and they turn up in inherited jars more often than you would expect.

Melt is a ceiling on the metal, not an offer. A buyer pays a share of it, and the spread between two buyers on the same lot is routinely wider than the entire premium difference this site tracks between bullion dealers.

How this is calculated

2.5 g × 90% ÷ 31.1035 = 0.0723 troy ounces of silver, multiplied by the live silver spot price.

The silver weight is derived from how the coin was struck rather than copied from a reference table, and a test pins it to the published figure of 0.07234 ozt.

Other US silver coin series

Same calculation, different weight

All 15 silver coin series we value, including the face-value calculator for pricing a mixed lot.