page_title: Mercury dime
section_title: Inception
hierarchical_section_title: Mercury dime / Inception
caption_attribution_description: English: United States Mint plaquette honoring Adam Morton Joyce. A look in the 2011 edition of Coin World Almanac, page 140 reveals that Adam M. Joyce was Superintendent of the Philadelphia Mint from 1914 to 1921. This shows that it was by Morgan. Morgan was appointed Engraver (before he was assistant engraver) after Charles Barber's death on February 18, 1917, this was most likely done after his promotion as the Mint was very busy in early 1917 because of the problems with the Standing Liberty quarter. Not to mention shorthanded; the replacement for Barber on the engraving staff, John R. Sinnock, was not hired until late in the year. Scanned from the original medal by Wehwalt on October 19, 2011.
context_page_description: The Mercury dime is a ten-cent coin struck by the United States Mint from late 1916 to 1945. Designed by Adolph Weinman and also referred to as the Winged Liberty Head dime, it gained its common name because the obverse depiction of a young Liberty, identifiable by her winged Phrygian cap, was confused with the Roman god Mercury. Weinman is believed to have used Elsie Stevens, the wife of lawyer and poet Wallace Stevens, as a model. The coin's reverse depicts a fasces, symbolizing unity and strength, and an olive branch, signifying peace.
  By 1916, the dime, quarter, and half dollar designed by Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber had been struck for 25 years, and could be replaced by the Treasury, of which the Mint is a part, without Congressional authorization. Mint officials were under the misapprehension that the designs had to be changed, and held a competition among three sculptors, in which Barber, who had been in his position for 36 years, also took part. Weinman's designs for the dime and half dollar were selected.
context_section_description: On September 26, 1890, the United States Congress passed an act providing:
  The Director of the Mint shall have power, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, to cause new designs ... to be prepared and adopted ... But no change in the design or die of any coin shall be made oftener than once in twenty-five years from and including the year of the first adoption of the design ... But the Director of the Mint shall nevertheless have power, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, to engage temporarily the services of one or more artists, distinguished in their respective departments of art, who shall be paid for such service from the contingent appropriation for the mint at Philadelphia.
  The Barber coinage had been introduced in 1892; similar dimes, quarter dollars, and half dollars, all designed by Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber. The introduction had followed a design competition to replace the Seated Liberty coinage, which had been struck since the 1830s.  The Mint had offered only a small prize to the winner, and all invited artists refused to submit entries. The competition was open to the public, and the judging committee found no entry suitable. Mint Director Edward Leech responded to the failed competition by directing Barber to prepare new designs for the dime, quarter, and half dollar.  The Barber coinage, after its release, attracted considerable public dissatisfaction.
  Beginning in 1905, successive presidential administrations had attempted to bring modern, beautiful designs to United States coins.  Following the redesign of the double eagle, eagle, half eagle and quarter eagle in 1907 and 1908, as well as the cent and nickel redesigns of 1909 and 1913 respectively, advocates of replacing the Barber coins began to push for the change when the coins' minimum term expired in 1916.  As early as 1914, Victor David Brenner, designer of the Lincoln cent, submitted unsolicited designs for the silver coins.  He was told in response that Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo was completely occupied with other matters.
  On January 2, 1915, an interview with Philadelphia Mint Superintendent Adam M. Joyce appeared in the Michigan Manufacturer and Financial Record:
  So far as I know ... there is no thought of issuing new coins of the 50-cent, 25-cent, and 10-cent values.  If, however, a change is made we all hope that more serviceable and satisfactory coins are produced than the recent Saint-Gaudens double eagle and eagle and the Pratt half and quarter eagle.  The buffalo nickel and the Lincoln penny are also faulty from a practical standpoint.  All resulted from the desire by the government to mint coins to the satisfaction of artists and not practical coiners.
  In January 1915, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury William P. Malburn sent McAdoo a memorandum about the silver subsidiary coinage, noting that "the present silver half dollar, quarter, and dime were changed in 1892, and a new design may, therefore, be adopted in 1916.  This can be done any time in the year." In reply, McAdoo wrote "[l]et the mint submit designs before we try anyone else." on the memorandum.
  In April 1915, Robert W. Woolley took office as Mint Director.  On April 14, he asked Superintendent Joyce to request Chief Engraver Barber, then in his 36th year in office, to prepare new designs.  The same day, Malburn requested the opinion of the Treasury Department's Solicitor concerning the Mint view that it could strike new designs for the three denominations in 1916.  On April 17, the Solicitor's Office responded that the Mint could change the designs.  At the time, the Mint was intensely busy producing the Panama-Pacific commemorative coin issue, and immediate action was not taken.  In October, Barber was summoned to Washington to discuss coin designs with Woolley, though it is uncertain whether or not he had already prepared sketches for the new coinage.
  On December 3, Woolley met with the Commission of Fine Arts.  Woolley asked the Commission to view sketches produced by the Mint's engraving department.  Barber was pr
caption: Philadelphia Mint Superintendent Adam M. Joyce decried the Lincoln cent and other new coinage, believing that they struck badly.  Plaquette by George T. Morgan.
exif: {}