Mintage: 6,770,000 Philadelphia – 1,843,000 San Francisco

Metal Composition: 90% Silver – 10% Copper

Weight: 2.5 grams

Potential Value: $3 – $550

Diameter: 17.9 mm

Mints: Philadelphia, San Francisco

The 1930 Mercury Dime without a mintmark (Philadelphia) in MS-63 condition is likely to fetch $150. Don’t stop here though. Keep reading about The Soviet Dime. It’s an interesting story that could explain why the 1930-D coin exist.

The Soviet Dime

The 1930 (D) Mercury Dime is a mystery that doesn’t seem to have a clear answer. One theory is the Denver minted dime was part of a Russian operation. The story seems to suggest that the Russians created coin blanks with 90% silver and 10% copper and then proceeded to stamp out their own 1930 (D) Mercury dimes.

Many tend to believe this theory due to the high quality of the coins that do turn up. I’m not sure why Russia would go thorugh this unless their was an embargo or something I’m not familiar with. Apparently Russia was producing a lot of fake coins back then (similar to China today). The belief that this was the Russians is the concept that all the dimes found showed high quality dies were used. a level that wasn’t accessable to crime groups.

In addition, the coins weren’t meant to sell to investors. They were meant to be spent into global circulation. This is apparently why all coins found have a lot of wear. With the value of the US Dollar following WW2, it was valuable for Russia to create state level production of counterfreit silver US coins. Few have been found, which gives credibility to the story. Whatever the truth, this is one of the stories given to explain this mystery “Soviet Dime”.

One of the first stories to come out about the dime was mentions it in The Numismatist a decade after the dime was suppose to have been struck. Here’s what it said, “D. F. Townsend, of Fort Dodge, Iowa, reports that a friend of his has a 1930-D dime in his collection in very fine condition. The mint reports show no coinage for the dimes at the Denver Mint in 1930. Can any readers give some information on this issue?”.

Other stories have came out about this coin, but few seem to have a better answer than the Soviet Dime story. It may be worth collecting this dime if you can find a geniune counterfeit!