Thin Dimes

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

Hello,

While I was digging out my records to check on the Grand Slam stats I happened to pick up a roll of barber dimes. The tube appeared to only be 75 percent full, thought that perhaps I had miscounted. But no. All 50 there. I compared that against rolls of Mercs and Roosie's. They were much fuller. Has to do with average thickness. I don't have any tubes of Seated dimes but bet you could get quite a few more than 50 in a roll.

What I thought was interesting is trying to determine how many years a dime would need to circulate to get that thin.

Assuming most silver was pulled from circulation shortly after clad coinage was started in 1965....

I've never seen a thin Roosie, so 18 years of circulation (1946-64) are not enough to do the job. Some early Mercs can be a little thin, but not like Barbers so even 48 years (1916-1964) wasn't enough to do the job.

Rough guess is it takes 60-70 years of use to get a real "one thin dime". Maybe more.

I've found Seated in same hole with Barber, Barber with Merc, Merc and Roosie. But never found a coin spill that was Seated/Merc or Barber/Roosie.

Has anyone out there ever found a spill like this?

Chris

 

[Jim C (Mich)]

Some good thinking there Chris. I have never found the combo that you bring up either. I bet your right about how long it takes in circulation to get the dime so thin. Also, to let others know, thin dimes don't usually give the same silver tone, more in the penny range.

 

[NealNoIN]

Mercs with Barbers and Mercs with Rosies but never skipping a type. Also, never an indian with a memorial.

 

[Hotcz70]

n/t

 

[Mike Moutray - St.Louis MO]

I recall finding a barber dime and a roosy in the same hole before. Not really as scarce as it may seem... barber coins circulated well into the 1940's and early 1950's. I also found a nearly smooth seated quarter at a church built in 1953 in a postwar subdivision. I think seated coins disappeared out of circulation by WWI. How this quarter stayed in circulation that long is a mystery...

Of all the multiple coin finds I've made in the past, I learned that seated and barber dimes can wear down in a hurry... 10 -15 years of heavy circulation will reduce an uncirculated barber or seated down to AG-G condition. Coins back then had purchasing power and changed hands a lot more often than coins today - most coins today spend much of their time sitting in jars or bank vaults while the paper money gets the brunt of circulation. Some standing liberty quarters only needed 5-7 years of circulation for the date to disappear... especially the weaker struck, older ones... that is why it is an extra special accomplishment to get a dated type 1 standing quarter between 1916-1924.

I've found a half dozen roosies in AG-G condition... all 1940's and early 1950's that lasted in circulation until late '60s, but they arent as thin as the older worn out dimes - higher relief in the design probably.

On an interesting side note... many years ago I roll hunted nickels saving the old Jeffs. I got 4 really old looking rolls from a small bank that had been sitting in the vault forever. The newest one in the rolls was a 1944 war nickel in uncirculated condition. The rest were pretty evenly split 50-50 between jefferson and buffalo nickels and there were 8 V nickels, the earliest date 1891! That was a very interesting peek back in time to see what exactly circulated in 1944! A year later, I picked up 3 identical rolls of nickels with the newest one 1970 in uncirculated... there were 4 well worn buffalos out of 160 nickels in those rolls. A friend of mine once got 2 rolls of quarters with 1906 Barber being the newest!!! That must have been quite a thrill! Just thought I'd share this. HH, Mike.

 

[Kelly-Stl]

Hey Mike, where do you bank??? I may want to open an account.

Kelly