2016-02-22 Mon

The 1916-D Winged Liberty Head dime is one of the most counterfeited or altered United States coins ever issued. The significant variations in price, according to listings in Coin World’s Coin Value, for a 1916-S dime in the same grades, makes the 1916-D dime a prime target for counterfeiters. There are chances that many more counterfeit samples of this beauty are in the numismatic marketplace. That’s why it’s imperative to compare the coin with an already graded and encapsulated sample by a major third-party grading service to guarantee a coin’s authenticity.

After accumulating the entire set a collector a collector learned through some authentication process that not one of the 250 dimes was a genuine. All of them had a D Mint mark added to a 1916 Philadelphia Mint strike. The only good part was that the altered pieces were made of .900 fine silver.

Author David W. Lange explains the most common method used to execute a 1916-D dime alteration in his book The Complete Guide to Mercury Dimes. This technique involves removing a D Mint mark from a common date Winged Liberty dime and affixing the severed D, with epoxy or solder, to a 1916 Philadelphia Mint strike, which otherwise bears no Mint mark. A D Mint mark so affixed appears to float above the surface of the altered coin, according to Lange.

They were struck from transfer dies which had been generated from authentic coins. Although these counterfeits were sharply detailed, they lack the textured fields and slightly diffused luster characteristic of this date, having the more brilliant surfaces typically seen in later coins.