By 1946, we had switched to the Roosevelt Dime that we still use today. This coin was minted from 1916 to 1945, and 1944 draws interest as the second-last year of this design. And the 1944 Dime is a Mercury Dime aka Winged Liberty Head. The inner coin is pure copper while the outer coin is a mix of 75% copper and 25% nickel for that silver shine.īut before 1965, all dimes had 90% silver and 10% copper. That’s why today’s dime is made of 91.67% copper and 8.33% nickel. In silver coins, this is called silver stacking, and the mint resolved this issue first by minting more coins to cover the shortfall, then by switching to base metals like tin, copper, nickel, or zinc. When the price of raw metal is higher than the denomination of the coin (aka face value), citizens melt the coins and sell the molten silver (or gold) for a profit. But wars, price fluctuation, and economic hardship made people hoard these precious metals at various times in history. In the early days, all American coins were gold or silver. But the 1944 Dime was unaffected since it was a 90% silver coin, so let’s explore the 1944 Dime Value. And during the War Years (1942 to 1945), many of these coins developed a limited war-time metal composition to conserve resources for the military. Collectible US coins include the penny (1c), nickel (5c), dime (10c), quarter (25c), half dollar (50c), and $1.
