The 1945-S Micro S Mercury dime and the US$25,875

CoinWeek (opens in a new tab) (4 November 2026) reports the 1945-S Mercury dime with the small S mint mark, the Micro S variety. In March 2019 two separate coins sold, both PCGS MS68 with Full Bands. CoinWeek says both carried CAC approval. It puts the Legend Rare Coin Auctions coin, on 21 March, at US$25,850 (certification 31080493). Three days later, on 24 March, it puts the GreatCollections coin at US$25,875: number 669971, certification 36776596. PCGS CoinFacts (opens in a new tab) (number 5063, the Full Bands line) still lists the auction record for that category as US$25,850, MS68FB, Legend, 21 March 2019. The 669971 page (opens in a new tab) confirms the coin, the certification number, that Sunday’s close, CAC Green, and a buyer’s premium of 12.5% (minimum US$5), reduced to 10% (same minimum) when payment is by check, eCheck, or wire. The text we read does not print the amount. CoinWeek does not say whether the US$25,875 is the hammer or the total with premium. Neither coin is in Notofilia’s virtual collection.

The 1907 punch

CoinWeek, drawing on David W. Lange, dates the small punch to 1907. San Francisco was then striking for the Philippine Islands, under United States administration after the war with Spain. CoinWeek recalls the Philippine coinage system of 1903 and, among the pieces that carried an S, the silver 10- and 20-centavo coins. That punch’s letter is more compact, with its own serifs. Lange, as CoinWeek reports him, follows it on Philippine coinage through 1919. In 1945 it returns on a San Francisco Mercury dime. In that series the mark was not part of the master die. It was punched into each working die. CoinWeek says no production record names the worker or proves that the war forced the change. An old punch may have served as a spare. What remains is the mark on several 1945-S dies. In the collection, the same letter identifies the 1887-S Morgan dollar. That is a different coin.

The last year of the Mercury dime

Adolph A. Weinman’s design had circulated since 1916. The obverse shows Liberty in a winged cap. Many people took her for Mercury, the Roman messenger, and the nickname stayed. The reverse pairs a fasces with an olive branch. CoinWeek recalls that Franklin D. Roosevelt died in April 1945 and that the Roosevelt dime appeared on 30 January 1946, the day he would have turned 64. 1945 is thus the last year of regular issue. PCGS CoinFacts (opens in a new tab) (number 5062) gives the San Francisco mintage: 41,920,000. That figure joins the ordinary S and the Micro S. The Mint did not separate them.

The 1947 discovery

Ron Guth, on the 5062 page, and Joshua McMorrow-Hernandez at PCGS (opens in a new tab) (30 January 2025) date the discovery to 1947. They do not give a name. CoinWeek, citing Lange, names Bernard J. Maier. The GreatCollections page catalogs the variety as FS-512 in the Cherrypickers' Guide. CoinWeek adds that NGC certifies it as well. MS68 is a step on the Sheldon scale. Full Bands, at PCGS, is abbreviated FB: the horizontal bands at the center of the fasces are fully separated.

The small S

CoinWeek places the mark at the lower left of the fasces, beside the olive branch. The ordinary 1945 S is larger and rounder. The Micro S is smaller, more compact, with sharper serifs. Size alone is not enough: wear, a tired die, and the light in a photograph change the shape. It is not a repunched mint mark, not a doubled die, and not a letter that shrank in the strike. It is a different punch. The January 2025 PCGS article includes a photograph comparing the two S marks. In the photograph on this note, a 1938-S dime, that year’s S sits in the same place. It is not the Micro S.

How many survive

PCGS CoinFacts survival estimates are expert opinion, not a physical census. On page 5062, the Micro S without a Full Bands requirement: 30,000 in all grades, 15,000 at MS60 or better, and 8,000 at MS65 or better. On page 5063, the Micro S with Full Bands: 1,500, 1,500, and 1,000. Those are not the same count. The text on 669971 speaks of about 1,500 for the whole variety and so folds the Full Bands figure into the total. Guth writes that more than a third of the 1945-S dimes submitted to PCGS are Micro S, and that 10% to 12% of those show Full Bands. McMorrow-Hernandez gives the same band range and says a circulated piece can sometimes be bought for less than US$25. That is a PCGS sentence, not a Notofilia appraisal and not the price of the grade.

Two sales, and twenty-five dollars

Certifications 31080493 and 36776596 are enough to say these are two coins. The second number is printed on the GreatCollections page, which counts 38 bids. CoinWeek calls the US$25,875 the highest confirmed auction price it found for the variety, and leaves the category record at PCGS as US$25,850. The gap is US$25. The two coins are the top of the market, not the value of an ordinary 1945-S Micro S.

The same grade does not set the price

CoinWeek lists other realizations, for separate coins. We did not open those pages. On 9 May 2024, Heritage, lot 4433 of the Central States signature sale, a PCGS MS68 Full Bands at US$18,000. CoinWeek says PCGS then counted four grading events at MS68 Full Bands and none finer. That is March 2024 data, not a census now. On 13 June 2024, an NGC MS68★ Full Bands at US$10,200, also at Heritage. In 2026: a PCGS MS67 Full Bands at US$2,196 (Heritage, 28 March); a PCGS MS65 Full Bands from the Fivaz Collection at US$537 (Heritage, 9 June); a PCGS MS67 Full Bands at US$2,013 (Heritage, 5 September); a PCGS MS66 Full Bands at US$1,586 (Stack's Bowers, 8 September, via Greysheet); a PCGS MS66 without Full Bands at US$195 (Heritage, 8 September); a PCGS MS65 without Full Bands at US$89 (Stack's Bowers, 9 September, via Greysheet). On 11 October 2026, GreatCollections closed another PCGS MS68 Full Bands, certification 25652458, number 2253248, at US$15,255, after 21 bids. Each line is one coin. It is not the price of the grade, and it is not a Notofilia appraisal.

The specification

PCGS CoinFacts lists the 1945-S Micro S, on both 5062 and 5063, as follows: Adolph Alexander Weinman, reeded edge, diameter 17.90 mm, weight 2.50 g, 90% silver and 10% copper, San Francisco Mint, mintage 41,920,000. GreatCollections, on 669971, adds KM-140, FS-512, and 0.07234 troy ounces of silver. We did not weigh the coin. The photograph on this note is a 1938-S Mercury dime from the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The S is that year’s mark. It is not the 1945 Micro S, not the Legend coin, and not 669971.