1942-P Mercury Dime
Common dateThe highest Philadelphia mintage of the series, and the date carrying its most famous variety. The 1942/1 overdate came from an obverse die that took one impression from a 1942-dated hub and one from a 1941-dated hub, leaving the 1 clearly visible under the 2.
Mintage
- Business strikes
- 205,410,000
- Mint
- Philadelphia (no mintmark)
- Mintage rank
- 76 of 77
- Proofs struck
- 22,329
Rank 1 is the lowest business-strike mintage in the series. Mintage is what the Mint produced, not what survives. These circulated as everyday money for decades, and enormous numbers were melted for their silver after 1965, none of it recorded by date. On this series in particular, strike quality separates the difficult coins far more than mintage does.
Reading the figure
Among the 27 Philadelphia issues in the series it is the 26th smallest. Of the 315,450,000 struck across all mints in 1942, this issue accounts for 65%. That is 4.2 times the San Francisco figure for the same year. The 1942 split ran Philadelphia 205,410,000, Denver 60,740,000 and San Francisco 49,300,000. The series median is 19,480,000, so this issue is more than twice as numerous as a typical date.
Every sentence above is computed from the mintage table on this page, not asserted separately.
About this figure
The 205,410,000 figure covers all 1942 Philadelphia business strikes, including the 1942/1 overdates. The Mint never reported the overdate separately, so it is documented here as a variety of this issue rather than given a mintage of its own.
Scarcity tier
Common date
Assigned from reported mintage alone: under 750,000 is a key date, under 2,500,000 is a semi-key.
This is a reproducible label derived from the mintage column, not a market valuation and not a Coin Curator price opinion. The same thresholds apply to every series on this site. Several dates are far harder or far easier to obtain than their mintage implies; where that is true, it is stated above.
Documented varieties
1942/1 Overdate
A doubled die obverse showing the underlying 1 beneath the final 2 of the date. One of the most collected varieties in twentieth-century U.S. coinage.
Widely recognised varieties only. The VAM reference catalogs thousands of die marriages across these series; the absence of a variety here does not mean none is documented elsewhere.
Full Bands is a strike designation, not a grade. The reverse shows a fasces, and the two horizontal bands around its centre are the last detail to strike up. Read the full note on the series page.
What to check before buying
Specific to the 1942-P:
- 1An overdate attribution should be stated on the certification label. The 1942/1 is heavily faked and is also confused with ordinary die deterioration around the date.
And for any certified coin
Verify the certification number on the grading service’s own lookup rather than from a photograph of the label, match the listing images to the certification record including grade and any variety attribution, look for cleaning, compare the mintmark against published photographs of the genuine issue, and read the return policy before buying. The grading guide covers each of these in full.
Coin Curator does not grade, authenticate, or appraise coins, and holds no licensed price guide or population data. Where this page shows recent sold prices, they are records of completed eBay sales, not a valuation of any particular coin. These are verification steps, not an appraisal.
Verify a certification number
Look a 1942-P certification number up on the service’s own site. A photograph of a label proves nothing.
Each service publishes its own guarantee with conditions and exclusions. Compare PCGS, NGC and ANACS.
Find a 1942-P for sale
Opens an eBay search for this exact date and mint. Coin Curator does not list inventory, hold stock, or set prices; verify each listing, seller, and return policy directly.
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Common questions
How many 1942-P Mercury dimes were minted?
The Philadelphia Mint struck 205,410,000 1942-P Mercury dimes for circulation. That is the 76th lowest business-strike mintage of the 77 date and mintmark combinations in the series.
Is the 1942-P Mercury dime a key date?
Coin Curator labels it a common date, assigned from reported mintage alone: under 750,000 struck is a key date and under 2,500,000 is a semi-key. The same thresholds are used for every series on this site, so the tiers are comparable between them. That label describes production, not market value or how hard the coin is to find today. The highest Philadelphia mintage of the series, and the date carrying its most famous variety. The 1942/1 overdate came from an obverse die that took one impression from a 1942-dated hub and one from a 1941-dated hub, leaving the 1 clearly visible under the 2.
What varieties exist for the 1942-P Mercury dime?
Widely recognised varieties for this issue include 1942/1 Overdate. A doubled die obverse showing the underlying 1 beneath the final 2 of the date. One of the most collected varieties in twentieth-century U.S. coinage. Variety attributions should appear on the certification label rather than only in a seller's description.
What should I check before buying a 1942-P Mercury dime?
Verify the certification number on the grading service's own lookup page, match the listing photographs to the certification record, check for cleaning, and compare the mintmark shape and position against published photographs of the genuine issue. An overdate attribution should be stated on the certification label. The 1942/1 is heavily faked and is also confused with ordinary die deterioration around the date.
Why do sources give different mintage figures for the 1942-P?
The 205,410,000 figure covers all 1942 Philadelphia business strikes, including the 1942/1 overdates. The Mint never reported the overdate separately, so it is documented here as a variety of this issue rather than given a mintage of its own.
Related dates
Guides for this coin
All guides →Mercury Dime Guide: the 1916-D & Full Bands
One of the most beautiful US coins. Most dates are pocket-change cheap, but the 1916-D key and the “Full Bands” strike designation turn this affordable series into a real pursuit.
1 min readMarket ContextJunk Silver vs Graded Silver: How to Think About the Tradeoffs
Pre-1965 US silver coins (junk silver) and certified examples of the same coins respond to different inputs. A framework for researching each one: what to verify, what melt value does and does not cover, and when each is worth a closer look.
1 min readEducationError Coins: Types, Attribution, and Verification
Learn the difference between off-center strikes, doubled dies, mules, broadstrikes, and post-mint damage, plus the records to check before buying.
1 min readBuying GuideHow to Spot a Counterfeit or Doctored Coin
Use weight, dimensions, surfaces, mintmark details, holder inspection, and certification records as screening checks. Learn the warning signs of altered coins and fake slabs.
1 min readMintage sources
Mintage figures are U.S. Mint production records, cross-checked against the published tables below on 2026-07-31. Where those tables disagree, the disagreement is disclosed on the affected page rather than resolved silently.
- CoinMintages.com, Mercury dime mintages — Business strikes and proofs listed separately. Carries no separate row for the 1942/1 overdates, consistent with them having no reported mintage.
- LandOfCoins, Mercury dime mintage — Independent table with business strikes and proofs in separate columns. Agrees on all 77 issues and all seven proof figures.
- Wikipedia, "Mercury dime" — No mintage table, but the source for the 1916-D key-date figure, the 1922/1932/1933 production gaps, and the 1942/1 being a doubled die rather than a separately reported issue.
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