1941 Dime Error List with Pictures
Three impressions of one letter helped explain a 1941 Mercury dime’s triple strike. Its January 2007 auction result was $2,600 before the buyer’s premium.
The 1941 dime error list below includes less obvious clues too, from an extra S to a stepped edge. Estimated whole-coin values range from $20–$3,500.
Compare the visible features and the coin’s condition before choosing a price, starting with the examples below.
1. 1941 Mercury Dime Repunched S Mintmark
An extra curved stroke beside the small S can be a trace of an earlier mintmark impression. The punch was applied more than once to a die, the steel stamping tool.
If the impressions did not line up, coins made from that tool could carry part of both letters. Collectors call this a repunched mintmark, often shortened to RPM.
The 1941-S category appears in variety references, but a generally thick S is not enough to identify it. The normal Large S style is also different from a second letter punched beside the first.
Estimated Value
For a correctly matched 1941-S/S, use an estimated $25–$250 across worn and attractive unworn examples. This compares minor Mercury mintmark varieties rather than assigning a premium to every unusually shaped S.
The visibility of the earlier curved stroke matters alongside the coin’s surfaces. A sharp close-up helps show it, but wear, scratches, or a low flat ledge from strike movement can weaken the case for a collectible repeated punch.
How to Identify
Find the S on the reverse just to the right of the E in ONE, near the lower left of the bundle. Do not confuse the front’s AW designer initials with a mintmark.
Use a 10× magnifier to trace the main S and any smaller curved stroke. Compare the entire letter with an identified 1941-S/S image, including the shape of the extra outline.
Turn the lamp to the opposite side and check that the second stroke stays in the same place. A normal Large S, general swelling, or a flat shelf is not enough: the added metal should follow a recognizable second-letter shape.
2. 1941 Mercury Dime Peeling Silver-Alloy Layers
A lifted sheet or shallow rough patch can show where the coin’s alloy separated into layers. Collectors describe this as lamination, whether the loose metal remains attached or has fallen away.
Year reports include Philadelphia examples and a San Francisco dealer listing described as a large separation before striking. Those reports do not establish one shared location or one common specimen.
The normal alloy is 90% silver and 10% copper. Unlike a modern copper-core dime, the coin has no separate outer cladding to lose; the flaw develops within the silver alloy itself.
Estimated Value
An estimated $20–$300 allows for small rough areas through larger, clearly preserved laminations. The comparison is with silver-dime layer flaws of similar size and condition.
A flap carrying original design can explain the separation particularly well. A dealer’s description of a large 1941-S flaw is not a completed sale.
Corrosion, prying, or scraping can cause or enlarge an apparent peel. Such damage should not receive the same premium as an undisturbed Mint-made layer flaw.
How to Identify
Keep any loose flap attached and photograph the coin before handling it further. Low-angle light can reveal where the layer separates and rejoins the sound metal.
Under a 10× magnifier, inspect whether the design continues onto the surviving layer. If the separation preceded striking, the later design should fit that already damaged surface.
A scale can compare a loose example with the usual 2.50 g, but a missing piece may lower the reading. An attached flap can leave the weight close to normal.
Check for fresh cutting or corrosion around the boundary. A natural layer separation with original struck detail is more helpful than the rough patch’s size alone.
3. 1941 Mercury Dime Reported Wire Struck-Through Impression
A thin curved depression may be the imprint of a wire caught between the blank and a stamping tool. The wire blocks part of the design and leaves its shape pressed into the metal.
A collector posted a 1941 Mercury dime in 2025, and replies favored this explanation. The discussion is a report of a possible struck-through wire, not a grading service’s identification of the object.
The coin’s mint and the exact nature of the material still need an individual examination. A scratch can make a similarly narrow line after striking, especially in a brightly lit photograph.
Estimated Value
If the impression is identified as a genuine wire strike-through, estimate $40–$350. Comparable silver-dime examples vary with the line’s clarity, size, and the condition of nearby design.
The posted 1941 coin does not provide an established sale price. A distinctive original impression can appeal to collectors.
A scratch or later dent remains damage even when its shape looks unusual. Compare prices according to that physical difference, rather than accepting an attractive nickname as proof of value.
How to Identify
A useful photograph shows both ends of the line and the design it crosses. Under side lighting and a 10× magnifier, inspect whether the hollow interrupted the strike or sliced finished details afterward.
Compare its sides for a pushed-up lip or torn metal that would fit a scratch. Check the opposite face for related impact damage, keeping the surfaces untouched rather than cleaning or probing the depression.
The coin posted to a forum needs this examination just like any other candidate. A smoothly connected impression that interrupts original struck detail, without the torn edges of later scratching, is the visible relationship that would support a wire-struck explanation.
4. 1941 Mercury Dime Partial or Tilted Collar Edge
A shelf-like step can form along the edge when the blank is only partly contained during striking. The collar is the surrounding ring that normally controls the outline and forms the edge grooves.
A San Francisco NGC MS63 example is recorded with partial collar contact. Separate Philadelphia examples have a tilted collar, producing a boundary whose height can vary around the coin.
Those Philadelphia pieces were described as cleaned, with AU58 Details and MS60 Details grades. The cleaning affects their surfaces and value, but it does not by itself erase the original edge error.
Estimated Value
For identified Mercury partial-collar errors, estimate $50–$400. As a different-year comparison, the 1945 Philadelphia tilted-collar ANACS MS60 example has a recorded $312 result in December 2020.
The cleaned 1941 Philadelphia coins need lower-quality surface comparisons, not prices borrowed unchanged from attractive problem-free examples. A clear edge photograph is especially valuable for showing the step, because a face-on view may conceal the feature that collectors are paying to see.
How to Identify
A portrait close-up cannot show the complete collar error. Begin with a clear edge photograph, keeping a graded coin sealed.
Follow the line between grooved metal and the portion that spread more freely. On a tilted-collar example, that line can rise and fall around the edge.
Inspect the boundary with a 10× magnifier. Crushing or rolling damage may flatten details beside it on one or both faces.
Calipers can document a loose coin’s outline against the ordinary 17.91 mm diameter, but width alone does not establish partial contact.
The stepped levels should connect naturally with the changing groove pattern. A bright ring visible only around the portrait does not provide that edge evidence.
5. 1941 Mercury Dime Curved, Straight, or Ragged Clipped Blank
A missing section may have been absent before the coin received its design. Recorded 1941 examples include curved, straight, and irregular ragged edges, with separate Philadelphia and San Francisco coins.
The Philadelphia straight-clipped NGC MS63 dime has an actual weight of 2.2 g. Other examples include a curved gap at 3 o’clock and a San Francisco 5% clip.
A different 1941-S coin combines a 15% straight clip at 9 o’clock with a raised crack across the portrait. Its missing blank metal and tool-crack line are different effects appearing on the same coin.
Estimated Value
Identified Mercury clips fit an estimated $30–$450, depending on the missing section and the remaining coin’s condition. A different-year 1945-D MS66 curved clip has been offered at $165, an asking price rather than a sale.
The 1941-S straight clip and portrait crack should be assessed together as one coin. Natural cut-boundary features, a clear date, and intact surfaces matter more than simply counting how many unusual details a seller lists.
How to Identify
For the 2.2 g straight-clipped example, the low weight supports the documented missing section. A scale should compare other loose candidates with the normal 2.50 g without assuming they share that exact reading.
Examine the two ends of a gap with a 10× magnifier. Original struck metal should meet the missing portion naturally, rather than show fresh tool grooves or a recently crushed edge.
For the 1941-S 9 o’clock clip, inspect the portrait crack separately. It should rise from the surface; a cut through the coin is a different defect.
Keep curved, straight, and ragged examples in separate photographs. The original relationship between the gap, its endpoints, and the surrounding strike is the decisive comparison.
6. 1941 Mercury Dime Broadstrike
The design can sit inside a wider-than-normal silver outline when the collar fails to contain the strike. Collectors call this a broadstrike, and the design need not be perfectly centered within the expanded border.
Philadelphia records include NGC MS65 and MS66 Full Bands examples, plus a collector’s non-centered broadstrike. Full Bands means clear separation between the horizontal bands around the reverse bundle of rods.
A San Francisco ANACS AU50 broadstrike is also reported. These are separate coins with different preservation, and an uneven rim alone does not prove that metal spread outside the collar.
Estimated Value
An estimated $50–$500 covers identified 1941 broadstrikes across worn and attractive unworn examples. The separate 1945 AU58 dime broadstruck on a blank has a recorded $300 June 2023 result, providing one silver-Mercury comparison.
The expanded outline should remain easy to understand from both faces. Strong design and original surfaces can increase appeal, while a coin hammered flatter after striking may look wide but does not belong in the same price comparison.
How to Identify
Trace the outer letters all the way around both faces. A broadstrike should keep the intended design on the metal, even when the border is wider on one side.
Next, record the loose coin’s widest and narrowest dimensions with calipers against the normal 17.91 mm. A scale can compare its weight with 2.50 g, since sideways spread need not remove silver.
Use a 10× magnifier on the expanded area and edge. Look for natural outward flow rather than crushed letters, hammer marks, or a uniformly flattened border.
An off-center strike loses part of the design beyond the blank. Complete outer detail inside genuine outward spread is the more useful broadstrike test.
7. 1941 Mercury Dime Doubled Design on One or Both Faces
Extra raised outlines in the motto or date can begin in a stamping tool with a doubled design. Each coin made from it then carries the repeated details.
A Philadelphia front-doubling report points to IN GOD WE TRUST, the date, and LIBERTY. The Denver variety is different: it combines front doubling with extra reverse lettering and bundle outlines.
The Denver coin is cataloged as DDO and DDR, meaning doubled die obverse and reverse. In plain terms, both stamping tools carried doubled detail; that does not mean the finished coin was accidentally struck twice.
Estimated Value
PCGS records $650 on eBay in March 2019 for the Denver variety in MS67 Full Bands. That grade describes an unworn coin with very few marks and sharply separated reverse bands.
Estimate $75–$900 for identifiable Denver examples and $30–$500 for the separately reported Philadelphia front varieties. Strong, rounded separation and preservation matter, and the Denver transaction should not be assigned to a Philadelphia coin.
How to Identify
The two-sided Denver variety needs both faces examined, not just a thick-looking date. First confirm D on the reverse near the lower left of the bundle.
With a 10× magnifier, trace LIBERTY and the date against photographs of the Denver pattern. Turn over and compare the repeated reverse lettering and bundle outlines.
For the Philadelphia report, use its separate front comparison around the motto, date, and LIBERTY. Philadelphia normally has no mintmark.
AW on the front is the designer’s mark, not a W mintmark.
Look for several matching split corners or rounded extra strokes in the proper positions. Flat, lowered shelves can come from strike movement, and one thick letter does not establish the same doubled tool.
8. 1941 Mercury Dime Off-Center Strike, Sometimes with Partial Collar Contact
An empty crescent beside displaced design shows where a blank missed the intended striking position. Philadelphia examples include 15% toward 11 o’clock, 35% toward 9:30, and a separate 45% coin.
San Francisco records also include off-center strikes. One reported PCGS MS61 example combines the displacement with partial collar contact, so an edge step accompanies the shifted design.
Those percentages and edge features belong to different specimens. A mixed auction group containing a 1941-S 10% example does not make the group’s other dates, errors, or price the properties of that single dime.
Estimated Value
For genuine dated 1941 off-center dimes, estimate $100–$1,200, with displacement, preservation, and readable identity affecting the price. A recent different-year Mercury comparison is the 1945 Philadelphia 15% XF40 coin, recorded at $252 in June 2024.
The reported San Francisco off-center and partial-collar combination has one whole-coin value. Its extra edge feature may add interest, but it should not be valued by adding two full prices for two imaginary separate coins.
How to Identify
Align full photographs of the front and back and compare where each design ends. Both should be displaced relative to the same blank, rather than only one tool leaving a narrow rim.
Inspect the unstruck crescent with a 10× magnifier for original surface texture. Grinding away detail can create a false blank area.
On the reported San Francisco combination, add an edge view. The partial-collar step needs separate visible support alongside the off-center design.
Keep the date and mintmark visible when assessing the percentage. A genuine empty crescent opposite lost design on both faces is the basic check, with the edge step confirming the additional collar effect where present.
9. 1941 Mercury Dime Double or Triple Strike
Parts of an earlier design can survive when a coin receives another blow. On a Philadelphia overlap broadstrike, the second hit shifted toward 3 o’clock and left earlier letters visible at the left.
Its edge remained grooved from the first strike, despite the blocked collar during the second. No new blank entered between those blows.
A separate San Francisco example was struck twice within the collar. A Philadelphia triple strike instead shows three stages of the second S in STATES, supported by repeated front details.
This records multiple blows, not a doubled design already present on a tool.
Estimated Value
The overlapping double strike sold for $1,410 in April 2013. The triple-struck ANACS MS60 coin brought $2,600 before buyer’s premium in January 2007.
Estimate $300–$3,500 across identifiable multiple strikes with different strength and preservation. A clear sequence of earlier and later images increases appeal, but a subtle in-collar doubling should not automatically receive the same price as the more obvious three-strike example.
How to Identify
On the triple-struck coin, begin with the second S in STATES. Compare the faint first upper outline, the sharper second upper outline, and the more complete final S beneath them.
For the overlapping double strike, inspect the left-hand lettering that escaped the stronger second blow. Use a 10× magnifier to trace which parts of the old design remain under the newer image.
The grooved edge does not rule out this particular broadstruck second strike, because the first blow already formed it. The San Francisco in-collar example needs its own repeated-image comparison.
Follow the sequence across both faces. Overlapping struck designs that explain one another are stronger evidence than isolated doubled-looking letter edges.
Conclusion
Estimated values of $20–$3,500 cover the reported surface flaws, missing-blank sections, and more complex multiple strikes. A clear explanation of what happened is more useful than a dramatic-looking mark alone.
Keep each coin’s mintmark, condition, and overlapping features together when comparing prices. The triple-struck letter, repeated S mintmark, and irregular edge each call for a different close look, with delicate metal left untouched.