1930 Mercury Dime

The first year of the 1930s saw the United States descend into the Great Depression, and with it came a drastically reduced need for new coinage. The U.S. Mint responded with significantly lower outputs of the 1930 Mercury dime than mintage numbers for previous years of the series would have typically suggested. While most years of the 1920s each saw more than 30 million dimes roll out of the U.S. Mint, fewer than 10 million Mercury dimes were made in 1930. Further suppressing production of 1930 Mercuries was the fact that the Denver mint did not strike any dimes that year.

Here’s a breakdown of 1930 Mercury dime mintages:

• 1930, 6,770,000 minted; $4

• 1930-S, 1,843,000; $5

*Values are for coins in a grade of Good-4.

**1930-D Mercury dimes are counterfeit.

While the mintage figures for both the 1930 issues are relatively low, especially when compared to the higher-mintage dates that came before, the prices for uncirculated 1930 Mercury dimes are surprisingly reasonable. $55 can buy a Philadelphia-mint specimen in MS-63, and $130 can purchase a San Francisco example in a similar grade. Fully split band (FSB) Mercury dime specimens are especially attractive and could garner potentially good returns on your investment dollar.