1945-S Mercury Dime
Common dateThe last Mercury dime struck. The series ended in 1945 and was replaced the following year by the Roosevelt dime, introduced after Franklin Roosevelt's death and his association with the March of Dimes.
Mintage
- Business strikes
- 41,290,000
- Mint
- San Francisco (S)
- Mintage rank
- 56 of 77
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 25 San Francisco issues in the series it is the 21st smallest. Of the 240,665,000 struck across all mints in 1945, this issue accounts for 17%. Philadelphia struck 3.9 times as many that year. The 1945 split ran Philadelphia 159,130,000, San Francisco 41,290,000 and Denver 40,245,000. 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
This total includes the Micro S variety. The Mint did not report the two mintmark punches separately, so the variety is documented below rather than given its own row.
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
Micro S
A noticeably smaller S mintmark punch used on some 1945-S dies, collected separately from the normal large S.
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
Nothing about this date calls for a check beyond the ones that apply to any certified coin.
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 publishes no price or population data. These are verification steps, not a valuation.
Verify a certification number
Look a 1945-Scertification 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 1945-S for sale
Opens an eBay search for this exact date and mint. Coin Curator does not list inventory, hold stock, or quote prices; verify each listing, seller, and return policy directly.
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Common questions
How many 1945-S Mercury dimes were minted?
The San Francisco Mint struck 41,290,000 1945-S Mercury dimes for circulation. That is the 56th lowest business-strike mintage of the 77 date and mintmark combinations in the series.
Is the 1945-S 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 last Mercury dime struck. The series ended in 1945 and was replaced the following year by the Roosevelt dime, introduced after Franklin Roosevelt's death and his association with the March of Dimes.
What varieties exist for the 1945-S Mercury dime?
Widely recognised varieties for this issue include Micro S. A noticeably smaller S mintmark punch used on some 1945-S dies, collected separately from the normal large S. Variety attributions should appear on the certification label rather than only in a seller's description.
What should I check before buying a 1945-S 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.
Why do sources give different mintage figures for the 1945-S?
This total includes the Micro S variety. The Mint did not report the two mintmark punches separately, so the variety is documented below rather than given its own row.
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: Which Is the Better Hold?
Pre-1965 US silver coins (junk silver) trade on melt value plus a small premium. Graded examples of the same coins trade on numismatics. Which strategy actually wins long-term?
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 GuideMS-63 vs MS-65 vs MS-67: Which Grade to Actually Buy
Adjacent grades can carry very different market evidence. Learn how to compare surfaces, eye appeal, population data, and current records before choosing a grade.
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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