PLEASE NOTE: This article is by no means exhaustive, nor is intended to be. I will not mention many doubled dies here as there are not many that are worth looking for to general collectors. I will include further resources for these errors at the end of the article to allow you to decide if they are something you would like to search for in your hunting adventures.

First things first.

Dimes are pretty forgiving for newer searchers. As far as modern mint errors are concerned there are fewer among dimes than any other denomination save for half dollars. This is a double edged sword however, because while coins worthy of securing and saving are easily identifiable by visual inspection, these examples are not common to come across.

Searching a a few rolls or even a box of dimes is straightforward. Silver is easily identified my the rim or edge of the coin, and the two major varieties that most dime searchers are seeking are simple to identify by a quick glance at the obverse. There are doubled die obverse and reverse varieties in the 10¢ coins, though they are quite mild compared to the bold doubling commonly seen on pennies and some nickels. The DDO/DDR dimes generally do not command a sizable premium that other coins do unless they display bold, very noticeable doubling that can be seen with the naked eye.

All of this makes dimes a great starting point for the roll hunter new to the hobby, but also creates a paradoxical lull in searching. The proverbial electricity from searching dimes primarily comes from finding silver. Unwrapping a roll and inspecting edges is the most efficient method of identifying silver coinage, and generally takes only a moment to achieve. Once that is done, you either found a silver coin, or you did not. Unfortunately no amount of closely examining each and every coin is going to suddenly alter the metallic composition of the pile of coinage in front of you, with the only exception being alchemy. As a side note, if you DO possess the alchemical knowledge to transmute copper and nickel into silver, please email me via the contact page. I would love to work with you.

It may be heresy to say this, but dimes are pretty boring to hunt.

Don’t get me wrong, they can indeed pay off very well with silver, but there are far more clad dimes in a box. In fact, as a bit of anecdotal evidence, the average silver to clad ratio that I see from fellow community members is about one silver per box of dimes. That is an average of 1 silver for every 2,499 clad coins. This ratio is far from guaranteed however, as I have found multiple silvers in just a mere 10 rolls before, as well as finding absolutely nothing while opening several dozen rolls in a row.

So what are we looking for in a roll of dimes?

Silver coinage.

More specifically any dime dated 1964 or earlier. This is the proverbial bread and butter, the peanut butter to the jelly, the key to the heart of any hunter looking for the subdued colored metallic stuff.

The absolute easiest way to identify silver is by unwrapping the roll while maintaining the mass of coins in a straight row, and inspecting the edge. The older silver coins lack the brownish red copper core layer seen on all dimes and quarters minted from 1965 to date. Silver will generally jump out and be quite noticeable, though particularly old or weathered coins may be more subdued in luster and blend in a little more easily. I have personally, on more than one occasion, missed a silver edge only to discover it while inspecting the remainder of the roll. Another reason to pay meticulous attention while roll hunting.

You may, on occasion, locate something older than a Roosevelt. Generally a Mercury dime, but there is a minute and near astronomical chance that you will come across a Barber dime or something even older. Mercury dimes were minted from 1916 to 1945 and are a commonly hoarded form of junk silver among silver stackers and coin collectors alike, hence their scarcity in general circulation. That being said, if you search enough dimes there is an somewhat decent possibility that you may still luck out and find one. The first silver dime I ever found roll hunting was an absolutely destroyed 1945 Mercury dime.

To calculate the melt value of silver dimes that you have found, I personally recommend the website Coinapp and their silver melt calculator. This is useful for calculating melt values of your entire collection of silver coinage as well, including quarters, half dollars, war nickels, and silver dollars. The calculator bases it’s pricing off of that particular days silver spot price, but you may also manually enter spot prices to calculate values based on potential silver spot fluctuations. Do bear in mind that this is merely the value of the silver in your coins and not indicative of potential numismatic premiums.

For example, as of today, the silver melt value of a 1916-D Mercury dime is $1.08. The intrinsic numismatic value of a 1916-D Mercury dime, even in poor conditions, is several hundred dollars all the way up to several tens of thousands of dollars in Mint State conditions.

A Few Noteworthy Errors.

As stated above, there are not many noteworthy examples of errors on modern dimes, especially the clad variety. The three most desirable doubled dies occur on silver dimes of the 1960’s

Doubled Die Obverse:

1960 Philadelphia minted Proof DDO: There is noticeable doubling of “IN GOD WE TRUST” and the date. More information may be found here on usacoinbook.com’s in depth page on the error. Bear in mind that finding silver in circulation is uncommon, and finding a proof is rare, so this particular error is unfathomably unlikely to be found in circulation.

Doubled Die Reverse:

1963 Philadelphia Minted Proof DDR: There is noticeable doubling in the text of the reverse. More information may be found here on usacoinbook.com’s in depth page on the error. As with the 1960 Proof DDO, this one is a silver proof and equally unlikely to be found in circulation.

1964-D DDR: This is a year and mintmark that is actually possible to catch ion the wild. In general, most of my silver finds are from the year 1964, and due to my geographic location I tend to find more Denver Minted coins than Philadelphia. The error lies on the reverse of the coin and shows doubling on many aspects of the reverse. More information may be found here on usacoinbook.com’s page on the error.

Missing Mintmarks:

1968, 1970, 1975, 1983 proof lacking “S” mint mark:

These are quite easy to identify, not by what is observable on the coin, but rather by what is missing. Please note that these errors are only on proof coins. All proof sets were supposed to contain an “S” mint mark for San Francisco minted proof coins. 1968 being the first year that proof sets were minted in San Fransisco.

1982 missing mint mark:

Another example of a missing mintmark would be the 1982 business strike dime intended for circulation. These examples are easily identified, though no exact numbers are on file regarding the actual numbers of these coins that were struck in error.

Scarce release:

The near infamous 1996W

The West Point Mint produced around 1.4 Million dimes in 1996 that were not intended for circulation. These special release dimes were minted for special edition collectors sets, making them extremely uncommon to find in circulation, though it has happened on occasion. Here is a link to more information via PCGS Coin Facts.

For even more information on Dime errors and varieties, check out Variety Vista’s page on Roosevelt Dimes.