how much silver in 10 mercury dimes

[VanElliana]

So, you've got a little stack of those iconic Winged Liberty Head dimes, which everyone calls Mercury dimes because, let's face it, that hat looks awfully familiar. You're wondering what kind of treasure you're really holding, aren't you?

Well, each one of those shiny little discs isn't solid silver, but it's the next best thing for a coin. They were made of 90% silver and 10% copper, mostly so they wouldn't bend when you tried to buy a soda pop back in the day. Based on that classic recipe, a single Mercury dime contains about 0.0723 troy ounces of actual silver.

If you've got a grand total of ten of them jangling in your possession, you can just slide that decimal point over. You are the proud owner of approximately 0.723 troy ounces of silver. That's certainly worth more than a dollar today! It's not quite enough to retire on, but it's a respectable little bit of precious metal you can hold in the palm of your hand.