Roll Searching- What to look for in rolls of dimes

Our next installment in our rolls searching series is what to look for while searching through rolls of dimes. Your probably saying to yourself, “why would I ever want to search through rolls of dimes, I won’t find anything good.” While searching through rolls of dimes seems time consuming and pointless, there are some treasures to be found and I am here to give you the information you will need to find them.


As always, there is silver. The most common silver dimes found in rolls are the Roosevelt dimes struck from 1946 to 1964. These dimes contain .900 silver and at today’s silver value, are worth $1.80. From personal experience, it seems like I come across silver dimes more often than another denomination. This could be the result of two phenomena. The first one is that in today’s economy, people are using small change less and less and don’t really care about dimes and second, it is exceedingly more difficult to differentiate a silver dime from any other type of coin.

While searching through rolls of dimes there is always the possibility of coming across a Mercury dime. Struck from 1916 to 1945, the Mercury dime is considered one of the United States’ most stunning coin designs. The Mercury dime was designed by Adolph A. Weinman, an apprentice to the famed Augustus Saint-Gauden’s, and features the mythological goddess Liberty wearing a Phrygian cap, a classic symbol of liberty and freedom.

There are two very prominent Mercury dimes to look out for while roll searching. The first is the 1916-D Mercury dime. The 1916-D issue of only 264,000 coins is highly sought after, due largely to the fact that the overwhelming majority of the dimes struck at the Denver Mint in 1916 carried the pre-existing Barber design. Thus, the 1916-D is worth up to thousands of dollars if it is in relatively fine condition. A considerable number of common 1916 Philadelphia mint dimes have been altered with a "D" added, so buyers should be careful to purchase only from reputable dealers or to accept only sealed and graded coins.

The second Mercury dime to look out for is the 1942/1. Somehow two obverse Mercury Dime dies were hit by a hub dated 1941, followed by a second hit with a 1942 hub, causing a “2 over 1” error. The die with the more noticeable blunder stayed at the Philadelphia Mint, where it made a small, unknown number of 1942/1 dimes. The other die was shipped to the Denver Mint, where it was placed into service.

Although dime rolls are usually ignored by roll searchers, they hold the possibility of finding very sought after pieces. Happy Rolls Searching!