2016-W Mercury Dime Centennial Gold Coin : A Collector’s Guide

By Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker for CoinWeek Notes …..
 

What Is the 2016-W Mercury Dime Centennial Gold Coin?

In 1916, Americans were introduced to three iconic U.S. coin designs: the Mercury or Winged Liberty Dime, the Walking Liberty Half Dollar, and the Standing Liberty Quarter. To mark the centennial of the release of these classic coins, the United States Mint issued 24-karat (.9999 fine) gold versions struck at the West Point Mint. Each coin was reworked using state-of-the-art digital tools and featured the date “2016” on the obverse. The reverse of each centennial coin also denotes the coin’s weight and composition.

The 2016-W Mercury Dime Centennial gold coin was released on April 21, 2016. It was struck in an Uncirculated finish to resemble the 1916 dime. Its diameter (16.50 mm) is close to a regular Mercury Dime (17.90 mm) despite containing one-tenth of an ounce of gold – a symbolic nod to the dime’s 10-cent denomination.

Besides describing some of the differences between the new coin and the original, the following video provides a 4K hands-on experience with a “perfect” example certified by NGC as SP70.

A Brief History of the Mercury Dime

The original Winged Liberty or Mercury Dime entered circulation at the end of October 1916 and remained in production for nearly 30 years. Alongside the coins mentioned above, it joined the Indian Head (Buffalo) Nickel, the Lincoln Cent, the Indian Head $2.50 Quarter Eagle and $5 Half Eagle gold coins, and the Saint-Gaudens $10 Eagle and $20 Double Eagle gold coins in circulation.

It truly was a golden age of U.S. coin design.

Adolph Weinman’s elegant design for the Mercury Dime drew heavily from the French Beaux Arts movement of the late 19th century. Heralded for its beauty, the Mercury Dime–so-called due to Liberty’s classically inspired headgear–saw the country through both World Wars and the Great Depression. Its unmistakable design was attached to both the March of Dimes anti-polio campaign and countless Charles Atlas advertisements in the back of comic books and magazines. When “Yip” Harburg wrote the song “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”, it was the Mercury dime he was talking about.

The design didn’t have the striking problems of the Buffalo Nickel or the Walking Liberty Half. Although specialists might seek out perfectly struck examples with Full Split Bands on the reverse (scarce for some issues), the Mercury Dime is remembered as an elegant and practical coin; a successful coin that served its purpose and elevated the image of American money.

The Mercury Dime’s term of service came to an unexpected end when, on April 12, 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died. Frail and aged beyond his 63 years, Roosevelt suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage while on vacation in Georgia. His death reverberated throughout America and the world.

Almost immediately, a movement began to honor Roosevelt on a circulating coin. The dime was the obvious choice as the denomination recalled Franklin’s battle with polio and his work with the March of Dimes. On May 17, Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr. announced that the Winged Liberty design would be replaced by Roosevelt Dime.

With that, the 30-year run of the Mercury Head Dime came to an end. Steadily, the examples in circulation wore down, Mint State pieces were hoarded, rare dates and varieties were cherrypicked, and by the time silver coins exited the scene in the mid-to-late 1960s, only the most worn examples continued to circulate.

Release, Sellout, and Re-Release of the 2016-W Mercury Dime Centennial Gold Coin

As stated earlier, the 2016-W Mercury Dime gold coin became available on April 21, 2016. Priced at $205 according to the Mint’s weekly pricing schedule for gold and platinum products, it had a mintage limit of 125,000 pieces and an initial order limit of 10 coins per household. Each piece was sealed in a circular capsule and came with an elegant, custom-designed, black-matte hardwood presentation case and a Certificate of Authenticity.

Within 15 minutes of the coin’s noon Eastern Time release on the Mint’s website, its order status had already been changed to “Backorder”. Less than an hour after its release (12:45 PM), the 2016-W Mercury Dime gold coin was listed as “Unavailable”. This meant that all available inventory had been allotted to fill customer orders but was not quite the same as a complete lack of the entire authorized mintage.

But like any other product, some of these orders were soon canceled, either by the Mint (payment failed to process, bad account information, etc.) or by customers themselves. According to CoinWeek’s news coverage, the Mint reported sales of 122,510 coins out of the 125,000 total mintage by Sunday, April 24. After customers had time to receive and examine their coins, returns commenced. Because of these factors, the Mint still had 8,889 pieces in stock by the middle of the year.

Frustratingly for collectors, the Mint did not make these available for purchase and had no set plans to do so. Adding to collector anxiety was the fact that the Mint’s pricing schedule was subject to change, and every additional week of delay meant that the price could be much higher than it was upon initial release (it could also have been lower, but that’s beside the point).

It wasn’t until the end of the year that the U.S. Mint announced the resumption of sales of the 2016-W Mercury Dime Centennial gold coin on December 15. After being criticized for the original order limit of 10 per “household”–an arrangement that many felt favored dealers and bulk buyers at the expense of regular collectors–the Mint sold these final coins with an order limit of one per household.

When it was all over, a total mintage of 124,885 was reported – 115 less than the maximum.

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Market Data and Noteworthy Specimens

Despite the title of this section, it is hard to call any specific ultramodern U.S. coin that has top-grade populations in the tens of thousands a “noteworthy” specimen. Dozens upon dozens of 2016-W Mercury Dime gold coins are offered at public auction every year since its release, with PCGS– and NGC-certified examples going for similar amounts, somewhere around $320 to $380. At the time of this writing (September 2024), the coin’s melt price is about $250.

That doesn’t mean prices haven’t been higher; the auction record for any 2016-W Mercury Dime Centennial gold coin is $2,000 for a specimen certified NGC Genuine sold in November 2019 on eBay. But to give a general sense of the market right now, a random selection of recent results from major auctioneers is presented below.

Categorized as an Anniversary Coin, NGC reports a total of 27,805 certified grading events for the gold Mercury Dime at the time of publication. The top pop grade of Specimen 70 (SP70) accounts for most of them, with 25,013 examples. Two thousand, seven hundred and seventy-seven coins are listed as SP69, 11 are graded SP68, and three are reported at SP67 (one is graded SP64). This top-heavy certified population pyramid is seen with modern collector coin issues bought in bulk with the express purpose of grading and immediately reselling them – i.e., “flipping”.

Also at the time of publication, PCGS has graded a total of 32,065 2016-W Mercury Dime gold coins. The vast majority of those coins–29,019–achieved a perfect grade of SP70. The numbers drop exponentially as we go down to “merely” Gem quality, with 3,021 reported at SP69, 22 listed at SP68, and two given for SP67. PCGS categorizes the gold Mercury Dime, the gold Standing Liberty Quarter, and the gold Walking Liberty Half Dollar as the 2016 Centennial Series.

Since it began grading and authenticating U.S. coins in 2023, CAC has graded six 2016-W Mercury Dime gold coins. Four of those are in the top pop grade of SP70.

Top Population: PCGS SP70 (29,019, 9/2024), NGC SP70 (25,013, 9/2024), and CAC SP70 (0:4 stickered:graded, 9/2024).

• PCGS SP70 #81102015: GreatCollections, September 8, 2024, Lot 1642753 – View. OGH 30th Anniversary label. First Strike on insert.
• PCGS SP70 #35556881: GreatCollections, September 8, 2024, Lot 1648717 – View. Mercury Dime 100th Anniversary label. First Strike on insert.
• NGC SP70 #4348491-001: GreatCollections, September 1, 2024, Lot 1639411 – View. Mercury Dime 100th Anniversary label (#663, retired). Early Releases on insert.
• NGC SP70 #4469369-004: GreatCollections, September 1, 2024, Lot 1649606 – View. Mercury Dime 100th Anniversary label (#663, retired).
• NGC SP70 #4229180-008: GreatCollections, September 1, 2024, Lot 1649600 – View. Mercury Dime 100th Anniversary label (#663, retired). First Releases on insert.
• PCGS SP70 #81176367: GreatCollections, September 1, 2024, Lot 1649256 – View. First Strike insert.
• ANACS SP70 #0535 of 1,789: GreatCollections, September 1, 2024, Lot 1639420 – View. First Day of Issue label, states coin is #535 of 1,789 coins ANACS certified on first day of issue.
• NGC SP70 #4389373-026: GreatCollections, August 25, 2024, Lot 1642599 – View. Mercury Dime 100th Anniversary label (#663, retired). Early Releases on insert.
• NGC SP70 #4390508-203: Stack’s Bowers, June 21, 2024, Lot 9012 – $384. Black-backed holder. Mercury Dime 100th Anniversary label (#663, retired). Early Releases on insert.
• NGC SP70 #4392587-043: Stack’s Bowers, June 21, 2024, Lot 9013 – $384. Black-backed holder. Mercury Dime 100th Anniversary label (#663, retired). Early Releases on insert.
• NGC SP70 #4388680-189: Stack’s Bowers, February 21, 2024, Lot 97698 – $360. Mercury Dime Centennial label. Early Releases on insert; Stack’s Bowers, June 5, 2024, Lot 27751 – $360. Mercury Dime Centennial label. Early Releases on insert.
• PCGS SP70 #81096019: Stack’s Bowers, April 3, 2024, Lot 13485 – $360. First Strike on insert.
• PCGS SP70 #81032083: “The Finger Lakes Collection,” Stack’s Bowers, April 3, 2024, Lot 13486 – $384. First Strike on insert.
• NGC SP70 #4388680-186: Stack’s Bowers, February 21, 2024, Lot 97699 – $360. Mercury Dime Centennial label. Early Releases on insert.
• ANACS SP70 #1229 of 1916: Stack’s Bowers, February 21, 2024, Lot 97700 – $360. First Strike label, states coin is #1,229 of 1,916.
• PCGS SP70 #83848748: Heritage Auctions, September 27, 2023, Lot 27747 – $384.
• PCGS SP70 #83848745: Heritage Auctions, September 27, 2023, Lot 27748 – $370.80.
• NGC SP70 #4327134-005: Heritage Auctions, September 27, 2023, Lot 27751 – $360. Mercury Dime 100th Anniversary label (#663, retired). Early Releases on insert.
• NGC SP70 #4327134-004: Heritage Auctions, September 27, 2023, Lot 27752 – $360. Mercury Dime 100th Anniversary label (#663, retired). Early Releases on insert.
• NGC SP70 #4327134-003: Heritage Auctions, September 27, 2023, Lot 27755 – $360. Mercury Dime 100th Anniversary label (#663, retired). Early Releases on insert.
• NGC SP70 #4327134-002: Heritage Auctions, September 27, 2023, Lot 27756 – $372. Mercury Dime 100th Anniversary label (#663, retired). Early Releases on insert.
• PCGS SP70 #38084148: Heritage Auctions, July 10, 2023, Lot 51706 – $480. Gold foil insert.
• PCGS SP70 #81045846: Heritage Auctions, March 13, 2023, Lot 51577 – $408. Mercury Dime 100th Anniversary First Strike label.
• NGC Genuine: eBay, November 2019 – $2,000.

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Design

Obverse:

The obverse is drawn from Adolph A. Weinman’s original design but not identical. The 2016 version features Liberty (of Thought) facing left. A winged cap adorns her head, tufts of hair curl around the base of the pileus cap on her forehead and behind her ear. A braid of hair wraps around the base of her neck. The word LIBERTY wraps around the top of the coin with letters spaced apart, the letters “E” and “R” partially obstructed by Liberty’s cap. The designer’s initials (a “W” surmounting an “A”) appear behind Liberty’s neck below and to the left of the “Y” in LIBERTY. The motto IN GOD WE TRUST is in the field to the left, and the date 2016 appears below the bust truncation to the rear. A subtle basin creates a dish-like appearance in the field.

Reverse:

As with the obverse, the reverse is adapted from Weinman. In the center are the fasces, the axe blade to the left. A curvilinear branch of olive leaves wraps behind the fasces. Wrapping clockwise around the top of the design is the legend UNITED · STATES · OF · AMERICA. Wrapping counterclockwise around the bottom of the design is the denomination ONE DIME. Two five-pointed stars separate the legend from the denomination. The W mintmark of the West Point Mint is located to the right of ONE. The motto E PLURIBUS UNUM (usually translated as “Out of Many, One”) appears to the right of the fasces, slightly below center. Below the motto is the coin’s composition and weight AU 24K (.9999 Fine) 1/10 OZ. The field is slightly dish-like.

Edge:

The 2016-W Mercury Dime Centennial gold coin has reeded edges that resemble the edge reeding on the 1/10th-ounce American Gold Eagle bullion coin. This reeding is more pronounced and precise than the reeding on an original business strike silver Mercury Dime.

Coin Specifications

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