What is the average number of times a typical mercury dime changed hands during its lifetime?

Question

"mercury" dime coined from 1916-1945.

i.e., how many different "owners" did a typical mercury dime have while it circulated?

Answer 1

That's an interesting question. I'm a coin dealer in the Midwest, and frankly, I don't think you could ever put together an accurate answer. It would depend on a lot of variables, too many to attempt to factor....how long the coin stayed in the original bag before being rolled, how long in the roll before being opened, what area of the country it went to, how long it was held by the people who possessed it, etc. Plus, are you just counting how many times it changed hands while circulating, or are you including ownership changes once it became more valuable than just its face value? Indeed, the answer would be virtually impossible to calculate. The number could be as low as 1, or as high as several thousand.

During the time when Mercury Dimes were coined, the U.S. went from war to prosperity to Depression and back to war again. Plus, a dime was a fair amount of money, so it would change hands on a regular basis...and if you look at the average circulated Merc, you'll see that many became ultra-thin from use, indicating they passed through many hands.

So, I suppose there is no real answer that would have any degree of accuracy. The only pieces that you could definitely say never passed through more than one person's hand would be, of course, Uncirculated coins that show no wear.

Hope this helped a little.

Answer 2

That can't be good for you to handle murcury as coins.

Answer 3

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