1921-D

The 1921-D Mercury Dime carries the lowest business-strike mintage of the series outside the legendary 1916-D, with only 1,080,000 coins released from the Denver branch. That figure landed during the same postwar slowdown that suppressed Philadelphia output, but Denver's smaller distribution footprint meant fewer coins ever saw the saver shelves of early collectors. The result is a coin whose mid-grade survivor pool is thin and whose Full Bands population is genuinely rare across all grades. Most circulated examples grade Good through Fine, and the strike quality on Denver dimes of this era often runs soft at the central fasces, which compounds the FB scarcity problem. Roll hoards effectively did not exist for this issue, and Mint State coins above MS-64 are reported in low double-digit figures at the major services.

Adolph A. Weinman's type continues with the winged Liberty obverse and the fasces-and-olive-branch reverse, struck on a planchet of 90 percent silver, 10 percent copper, 2.5 grams, 17.9 millimeters, reeded edge. The Denver mintmark sits on the reverse, to the left of the fasces base, and authentication starts there. A common fraud pattern involves adding a D mintmark to a genuine 1921 Philadelphia dime; collectors should examine the mintmark for tooling marks, a raised border around the punch site, or a font that does not match Denver's period style. Weight tolerance at 2.5 grams flags cast counterfeits, and a magnified look at the field around the mintmark will reveal repunching or filed-down evidence on altered coins. The Full Bands (FB) designation, applied by Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) and Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC), is extraordinarily scarce on this date and lifts pricing dramatically.

The 1921-D anchors any serious Mercury Dime collection and is widely treated as the second-most important date in the run. Population reports show Full Bands coins in very limited supply, and certified MS-65 FB examples have realized strong prices at Heritage Auctions and Stack's Bowers Galleries. Read the full Mercury Dime series history.