Item: i44891

 Authentic Coin of:

United States of America
Mercury or Winged Liberty Head Dime
Silver Dime 18mm (2.49 grams) This coin is 90% silver, and 10% copper. Philadelphia mint
LIBERTY IN GOD WE TRUST 1942,  - Head of Mercury or Lady Liberty, wearing winged cap.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ONE DIME,  - bundle of rods, with battle-ax, known as "Fasces", and symbolical of unity, wherein lies the nation's strength, and an olive branch, a symbol for peace; E PLURIBUS UNUM "out of many, one" in field to right.

A beautiful coin illustrating true U.S. Constitutional currency which defined the dollar as a quantity of silver. What is interesting to note is that United States of America coins, which were dimes, quarters, half dollars and dollars were made of silver until 1964 as per the mandate of the 1792 Coinage Act. The advantage of currency backed by precious metals being a medium of exchange that maintains and perhaps even gains buying power over time. There was little or no inflation when the ideals of the founding fathers were followed. The idea of paper money was a piece of paper which was exchangeable for coins at any time. It allowed you to easily transport your money without having to carry the weight of the gold silver and non-precious metal USA coins.

Article I, Section. 10 of U.S. Constitution

"No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin as Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility."

It is also interesting to note that silver is an industrial metal and supplies are being used up at rapid rates. Silver coins were placed in jugs of water as per it's anti-microbial properties. Also when cows were milked, many used or still use silver pails to catch the milk. Silver is also used in electronics as it is non-corrosive. Another interesting thing was that at times in history, American people were actually able to bring their silver to the U.S. mint and get silver coins in exchange.

The great idea of money is for it to be plentiful to allow for easy exchange. You see, contrary to popular belief, US money, even with the 1792 Coinage Act did have what may be described as fiat, or coins of non-precious metal. The 1 Cent or Penny Coins were made of copper and the 5 Cent or Nickel coins were made of nickel. However, the brilliant thing is that the copper and nickel coins were exchangeable for silver and gold coins. So because of this, there was gold and silver backing, in effect for the copper and nickel coins. So the amazing thing is that there was plentiful money, which was issued constantly and did not bear any interest for it's use.

So in conclusion, money is an interesting topic of discussion and study. It can both free and enslave and there is a lot of good in all types of systems. What is also amazing is that the money of the United States has the words "In God We Trust". This makes this phrase the most written phrase in existence. The more we love people and use money as a tool for their benefit, the better the world is becoming. We live in an amazing time and world where we are connected via the internet and where the best ideas are winning.

Two great documentary films to watch on this topic is Money Masters and The Secret of Oz.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.

The Mercury dime is a ten-cent coinn struck by the United States Mint from 1916 to 1945. Designed by Adolph Weinman and also referred to as the Winged Liberty Head dime, it gained its common name as the obverse depiction of a young Liberty , identifiable by her winged Phrygian cap , was confused with the Roman god Mercury . Weinman is believed to have used Elsie Stevens, the wife of lawyer and poet Wallace Stevens , as a model. The coin's reverse depicts a fasces , symbolizing unity and strength, and an olive branch , signifying peace.

By 1916, the dime, quarter, and half dollar designed by Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber had been struck for 25 years, and could be replaced by the Treasury , of which the Mint is a part, without Congressional authorization. Mint officials were under the misapprehension that the designs had to be changed, and held a competition among three sculptors, in which Barber, who had been in his position for 36 years, also took part. Weinman's designs for the dime and half dollar were selected.

Although the new coin's design was admired for its beauty, the Mint made modifications to it upon learning that vending machine manufacturers were having difficulties making the new dime work in their devices. The coin continued to be minted until 1945, when the Treasury ordered that a new design, featuring recently deceased president Franklin Roosevelt take its place.

Mercury is a major Roman god, being one of the Dii Consentes within the ancient Roman pantheon. He is the patron god of financial gain, commerce, eloquence (and thus poetry), messages/communication (including divination), travelers, boundaries, luck, trickery and thieves; he is also the guide of souls to the underworld. He was considered the son of Maia and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is possibly related to the Latin word merx ("merchandise"; compare merchant, commerce, etc.),mercari (to trade), and merces (wages). In his earliest forms, he appears to have been related to the Etruscan deity Turms, with characteristics and mythology subsequently borrowed from the analogous Greek god, Hermes. Latin writers rewrote Hermes' myths and substituted his name with that of Mercury. However, there are at least two myths that involve Mercury that are Roman in origin. In Virgil's Aeneid, Mercury reminds Aeneas of his mission to found the city of Rome. In Ovid's Fasti, Mercury is assigned to escort the nymph Larunda to the underworld. Mercury, however, fell in love with Larunda and made love to her on the way. Larunda thereby became mother to two children, referred to as the Lares, invisible household gods.

Mercury has influenced the name of many things in a variety of scientific fields, such as the planet Mercury, and the element mercury. The word mercurial is commonly used to refer to something or someone erratic, volatile or unstable, derived from Mercury's swift flights from place to place. He is often depicted holding the caduceus in his left hand.

Fasces is a bound bundle of wooden rods, sometimes including an axe with its blade emerging. The fasces had its origin in the Etruscan civilization , and was passed on to ancient Rome , where it symbolized a magistrate's power and jurisdiction . The image has survived as a representation of magisterial or collective power. Fasces frequently occurs as a charge in heraldry , as well as on the US dime, as the symbol of a number of Italian socialist parties, including the Unione Sindacale Italiana , and the namesake of fascism .

It should not be confused with the related term, fess, which in French heraldry is called a fasce.

Theeee Coinage Act  or the Mint Act, passed by the United States Congress on April 2, 1792, established the United States Mint and regulated the coinage of the United States. The long title of the legislation is An act establishing a mint, and regulating the Coins of the United States. This act established the silver dollar as the unit of money in the United States, declared it to be lawful tender, and created a decimal system for U.S. currency.

By the Act, the Mint was to be situated at the seat of government of the United States. The five original officers of the U.S. Mint were a Director, an Assayer, a Chief Coiner, an Engraver, and a Treasurer (not the same as the Secretary of the Treasury ). The Act allowed that one person could perform the functions of Chief Coiner and Engraver. The Assayer, Chief Coiner and Treasurer were required to post a $10,000 bond with the Secretary of the Treasury.

Although some of the provisions in the 1792 Coinage Act were adjusted as time went by, the majority of the rules specified in this Act remained in effect for many decades. Essentially, it provided the basic framework on which all subsequent coinage production was based. While the first draft of the Act stipulated that all coins would employ a portrait of the president on the obverse, the final version called for an image emblematic of liberty. The Act also authorized construction of a mint building in Philadelphia , the nation's capital. This was the first federal building erected under the United States Constitution . Mint director David Rittenhouse laid the building's cornerstone on July 31.

On May 8, 1792 An Act to Provide For a Copper Coinage was signed into law by President George Washington . This legislation resulted in the birth of the copper cent, from which descends today's one cent piece. The Act also stipulated that "the director of the mint... be authorized to contract for and purchase a quantity of copper, not exceeding one hundred and fifty tons... to be coined at the mint into cents and half-cents... and be paid into the treasury of the United States, thence to issue into circulation." Furthermore, "no copper coins or pieces whatsoever except the said cents and half-cents, shall pass current as money, or shall be paid, or offered to be paid or received in payment for any debt, demand, claims, matter or thing whatsoever."

Effects

Merchants and bankers were reluctant to bring silver bullion to the Mint because the disclosure of the illegal silver standard that was previously in effect. The silver coinage of 1794 and 1795 employed a 0.900 fine standard instead of the 0.8924+ standard (317.25/416=0.89242788461) as prescribed in the Mint Act of April 2, 1792 (Heritage Coin Auction #390, Vol III, p. 117). The most immediate effect of this practice was that depositors ended up paying an addition 2.5 grams of silver bullion (about 10% extra) for every dollar they received (Taxay, 1966, p. 89). When this became widely known, bullion deposits brought to the mint declined significantly in 1796 and 1797.

Authorization and free coinage

The Act authorized production of the following coins:

The coins were to contain the following markings:

• One side was to have an impression emblematic of liberty, with the inscription "Liberty", and the year of the coinage.
• The reverse side of each of the gold and silver coins was to have the figure or representation of an eagle with the inscription "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA."
• The reverse of the copper coins was to have an inscription expressing the denomination.

The Act defined the proportional value of gold and silver as 15 units of pure silver to 1 unit of pure gold. Standard gold was defined as 11 parts pure gold to one part alloy composed of silver and copper. Standard silver was defined as 1485 parts pure silver to 179 parts copper alloy. The Act also specified the dollar as the "money of account" of the United States, and directed that all accounts of the federal government be kept in dollars, "dismes", cents , and "milles", a mille being one-tenth of a cent or one-thousandth of a dollar. The silver content of a dollar under this act was almost exactly equal to ¹/₅ of the silver content of the contemporary British pound sterling , or 4 British shillings.

Under Sec.14 , any person could bring gold or silver bullion and have it coined free of charge, or later for a small fee, exchange it immediately for an equivalent value of coin. The paragraph summary states: "Persons may bring gold and silver bullion, to be coined free of expense;"

Quality control measures were implemented in that from each separate mass of gold or silver used to produce coins, three coins were set aside by the treasurer. Each year on the last Monday in July, under the inspection of the Chief Justice , the Secretary and Comptroller of the Treasury, the Secretary of State , and the Attorney General , the coins were to be assayed and if the coins did not meet established standards, the officers were disqualified from office. The meetings later became formalized as the United States Assay Commission , which continued meeting until it was disbanded in 1980.

Section 19 of the Act established a penalty of death for debasing the gold or silver coins authorized by the Act, or embezzlement of the metals for those coins, by officers or employees of the mint; this section of the Act apparently remains in effect and would, in theory, continue to apply in the case of "any of the gold or silver coins which shall be struck or coined at the said mint." (At present the only gold or silver coins struck by the US mint are the American Silver Eagle and the American Gold Eagle coins, some Proof coinage at the San Francisco Mint , such as the silver US State Quarters , and much of the Commemorative coinage of the United States .) All other sections of the act have been superseded, as for example the Coinage Act of 1834 changing the silver-to-gold weight ratio. Various acts have subsequently been passed affecting the amount and type of metal in U. S. coins, so that today there is no legal definition of the term "dollar" to be found in U. S. statute. Current statutes regulating coinage in the United States may be found in Title 31 of the United States Code .

See also

• Coinage Act of 1834
• Coinage Act of 1849
• Coinage Act of 1857
• Coinage Act of 1864
• Coinage Act of 1873
• Coinage Act of 1965
• Mill (currency)