1903 Barber Dime
In 1915, US Mint Director Robert W. Woolley supplied the opportunity to 3 noted sculptors, Adolph A Weinman, Albin Polasek and Herman A. MacNeil to prepare designs for three silver coins. Outside artists, not chief engraver Charles Barber, supplied designs for the previous six changes and Woolley felt this was an awesome option. By 1916, Barber was seventy five years previous but had a observe document of being hostile to outside artists designing coins he thought he needs to be designing. With three new designs, all replacing cash Barber himself had designed, it might have gotten unpleasant. The records recommend Barber was on his best behavior. In this case it appears he simply stepped apart and let his assistant George T. Morgan, who had designed the Morgan dollar, do all the work. Possibly Barber lastly just gave up or was too previous too struggle anymore or just acknowledged the beauty within the designs. Barber died in February 1917 and was changed by Morgan.
It is assumed that Woolley meant to award a distinct coin to every person. It may not have been deliberate this fashion, but Weinman ended up getting two of his designs as the successful designs. One being what would turn into known as the Strolling Liberty Half and the Mercury Dime. MacNeil won the design for the quarter with Polasek getting shut out.Adolph A. Weinman was born in Germany and came to the US on the age of 10 in 1880. He was a pupil of well known sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Saint-Gaudens can also be credited with some actually excellent coin designs. By 1915 when the design process started, Weinman was widely celebrated as one of the nation’s greatest sculptors.
The design of the Mercury dime is that of a “Winged Liberty” and is based on a bust that Weinman did in 1913 of Elsie Kachel Stevens, wife of nicely-recognized poet Wallace Stevens, who occurred to be tenants of a New York City apartment constructing owned by Weinman. The winged cap was to represent freedom of thought. The reverse of the coin depicts the fasces, an ancient symbol of authority, with a battle-ax on the top to signify preparedness and an olive department beside it to indicate love and peace and authority. Production and launch of the brand new dimes was delayed until later within the 12 months of 1916 because the dies were not quite ready. The Philadelphia and San Francisco mint produced Barber dimes much of 1916 to fulfill demand whereas Denver ceased producing Barber dimes in 1914. As soon as the dies had been full, manufacturing started with both Philadelphia and San Francisco cranking out hundreds of thousands of dimes. Denver though produced a mere 264,000 making the 1916-D an immediate rarity.
Shortly after the dime started circulating, many people began calling it a “Mercury dime” because of the wings on the cap. Mercury is the Roman god of trade, property and wealth as well as messenger to the opposite gods. The hat, known as a Petasus, is just like that worn my messengers during the time when Mercury was worshipped. Mercury gained his velocity from his wings. Though not the unique and intended name for the new time, the term Mercury caught and that is what it is called today. The Mercury dime served Americans via two world wars ending its run in 1945. With the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1945, there was a powerful motion to honor the president and in 1946 the Roosevelt dime began production and is still used today.
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