Mercury Dimes Recovered From Sunken Space Wreckage

I've always been a fan of the Mercury dime. They have a beautiful design that truly is timeless. Produced only from 1916 until 1945, they are very popular among collectors. My parents were both born in the 1940's and would tell me they remembered seeing them in their change when they were young. Collectors quickly began to hoard the dimes once they were discontinued, as they were one of the most popular designs on US coins.

Before I get into the story from the post title, I just wanted to share on of my Mercury dimes. This particular dime I picked up at some point years ago. Sadly, I have no great story to attach to it. What I do remember is that it was a nightmare to get a decent picture of it... That was many long years ago and I still remember! I've always had trouble getting good pictures of dimes which is why I so infrequently have even tried. But this one didn't come out too bad, have a look:

About the coin:

From numista.com

This is a fairly nice Mercury dime in great condition. It's not horribly valuable because there were in excess of 230 million produced in Philadelphia that year. I might be able to get between $5-10 dollars if I were to sell it, which I won't be doing any time soon. The silver value in the coin as of the time of writing this is $2.34, so it does still demand some premium from collectors!

Now for a very cool story about some Mercury dimes!

Liberty Bell 7 Flown Dimes

Mercury-Redstone 4 mission dubbed the Liberty Bell 7 was the second manned US space flight. Astronaut Virgil Grissom had brought onboard with him 52 Mercury dimes on his suborbital flight. It was launched on July 21, 1961 and the flight lasted just over 15 minutes before splash down in the Atlantic Ocean.

Everything went as planned right up until the landing on the ocean. The capsule had been equipped with an explosive hatch designed to be used in case of emergency, which inadvertently activated when it splashed down. Grissom quickly found himself at risk of drowning as water started to pour into the capsule. He was rescued by a Navy helicopter and the spacecraft subsequently sank to the depths of the Atlantic. To this day it is the only manned space craft to have been lost at sea.

Several attempts were made to recover the capsule in the early 1990's that proved unsuccessful. The craft had sank in 16,000 feet (4,900 meters) of water, which made it a challenge to successfully raise it from it's watery grave. However, on July 20, 1999 it was successfully hoisted onto the deck of the recovery ship. All of the dimes were found in the capsule, the world's first treasure recovered from a spacecraft at the bottom to the ocean!

Here's how it looked after all those years at the bottom of the sea:

NASA

The dimes quickly caught the interest of collectors around the world. One of the most recent to sell was in 2022 for $6,250. That is one expensive dime!

rrauction.com

I've always wanted one of them myself, but way outside of my budget to invest in a Mercury dime!

2016 Gold Commemorative Mercury Dime

PCGS

In 2016 the US Mint produced a commemorative of the Mercury dime in pure gold weighing 3.11 grams. The entire lot of them sold out in less than 90 minutes, and the only way to get one now is on the secondary market. They run over $450 right now, I wish I would have picked one up back in 2016! Sure is pretty though, isn't it?

That will wrap up this post about my Mercury dime and the dimes recovered from the space wreckage at the bottom of the sea. I hope you enjoyed it, it was fun putting it together! Please feel free to leave any questions or comments below, and thank you for all of your support. I really do deeply appreciate it, have a great week everyone!

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_dime

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces51.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Redstone_4

https://www.rrauction.com/auctions/lot-detail/346433606467006-liberty-bell-7-flown-mercury-dime-from-the-collection-of-curt-newport/

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces86517.html

Disclaimer:

I am not a financial planner and this isn't financial advice. Please always do your own research before investing your money. You worked hard enough to earn it!

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