The year was 1915 and there was a movement afoot to change the remainder of American coinage. With the changes to the $10 eagle, $20 double eagle, the cent and nickel, it was now time for changes to the dime, quarter and half dollar. Under 1890 law, changes could not be made to a coin design without approval from congress more frequently than every 25 years. The Barber coinage (dime, quarter and half dollar) was to reach that mark in 1916 and the mint wasted no time in making the changes, in fact starting the process before 1916.

In 1915, US Mint Director Robert W. Woolley offered the opportunity to three noted sculptors, Adolph A Weinman, Albin Polasek and Herman A. MacNeil to prepare designs for three silver coins. Outside artists, not chief engraver Charles Barber, supplied designs for the previous six changes and Woolley felt this was a great option. By 1916, Barber was 75 years old but had a track record of being hostile to outside artists designing coins he thought he should be designing. With three new designs, all replacing coins Barber himself had designed, it could have gotten unpleasant. The records suggest Barber was on his best behavior. In this case it seems he just stepped aside and let his assistant George T. Morgan, who had designed the Morgan dollar, do all the work. Maybe Barber finally just gave up or was too old too fight anymore or just recognized the beauty in the designs. Barber died in February 1917 and was replaced by Morgan.

It is assumed that Woolley intended to award a different coin to each person. It may not have been planned this way, but Weinman ended up getting two of his designs as the winning designs. One being what would become known as the Walking Liberty Half and the Mercury Dime. MacNeil won the design for the quarter with Polasek getting shut out.
Adolph A. Weinman was born in Germany and came to the US at the age of 10 in 1880. He was a student of well known sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Saint-Gaudens is also credited with some truly outstanding coin designs. By 1915 when the design process began, Weinman was widely celebrated as one of the nation?s best sculptors.

The design of the Mercury dime is that of a ?Winged Liberty? and is based on a bust that Weinman did in 1913 of Elsie Kachel Stevens, wife of well-known poet Wallace Stevens, who happened to be tenants of a New York City apartment building owned by Weinman. The winged cap was to symbolize freedom of thought. The reverse of the coin depicts the fasces, an ancient symbol of authority, with a battle-ax at the top to represent preparedness and an olive branch beside it to signify love and peace and authority.
Production and release of the new dimes was delayed until later in the year of 1916 as the dies were not quite ready. The Philadelphia and San Francisco mint produced Barber dimes much of 1916 to meet demand while Denver ceased producing Barber dimes in 1914. Once the dies were complete, production began with both Philadelphia and San Francisco cranking out millions of dimes. Denver though produced a mere 264,000 making the 1916-D an instant rarity.

Shortly after the dime began circulating, many people began calling it a ?Mercury dime? due to the wings on the cap. Mercury is the Roman god of trade, property and wealth as well as messenger to the other gods. The hat, called a Petasus, is similar to that worn my messengers during the time when Mercury was worshipped. Mercury gained his speed from his wings. Although not the original and intended name for the new time, the term Mercury stuck and that is what it is known as today.
The Mercury dime served Americans through two world wars ending its run in 1945. With the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1945, there was a strong movement to honor the president and in 1946 the Roosevelt dime began production and is still used today.

Collectibility
General

The Mercury dime is a wonderful coin for both experienced and beginning collectors and is the most popular collected series in its denomination. A complete set including all keys can be had for under $1500.00 but the keys will be in very bad condition. A nicer set with all coins graded at least G4 including keys can cost upwards of $2000.00 or more. If you want to establish a year collection, you can avoid the big cost of the 1916-D but you still will need to shell out $50 or more for a 1921 dated dime. Both mints, P or D (San Francisco did not produce any) are considered keys. All other dates should be easily obtained. Many people collect what is called a short set consisting of all mints and years from 1934 to 1945 or 1941 to 1945. A short set of BU specimens from 1941 is 1945 is quite attractive.

Taking the three keys (discussed in a bit) out of the equation, all dates and mints can be had for under $10.00 in G4 condition with the majority of them under $3.00. Most coins after 1940 can be had for under $1.00 in pretty decent grades. As with many coins of the times, Philadelphia was the main producer of coins while Denver and San Francisco were generally much lower than Philadelphia. For the entire series, Philadelphia produced 65.9% of all dimes, Denver produced 17.8% of all dimes while San Francisco produced 16.3%, clearly making mint marked dimes a little tougher to get.

Production totals exceed 50 million on 6 times prior to 1940 but never going over 67 million (1939). This totals far exceeded production of the Barber dime but pail in comparison to the later years of the Mercury dime. In 1941 production totals skyrocketed with Philadelphia producing 175 million dimes. For the last four years of production, totals never fell below 159 million. A total of 2.6 billion dimes were produced with over half, 56% being produced during the last 5 years with the last four coinciding with WWII. An amazing statistic considering the Mercury dime was in production for 30 years. Of course many of those years were during the depression where coin production was low for all denominations.

When grading Mercury dimes, the grading criteria changes somewhat in Mint State coins. Coins what are fully struck have what is called Full Split Bands (FSB). This is in reference to the fasces where there are clear and fully defined horizontal bands with separation between them. Mint State coins with this definition will command premiums over their counterparts without this designation.

Key/Semi Key Dates

Clearly, from a non-variety perspective, the 1916-D is the toughest and most expensive coin to obtain. Although not the rarest, is perhaps the most famous dime in U.S history. Typically, first year issues are heavily hoarded and collected by the public which typically preserves many coins. Not so with the 1916-d as its rarity initially went unnoticed. With millions of coins coming from Philadelphia and San Francisco, the public had not noticed that very few had the Denver mint mark. This is easily determined by the fact that so many 1916-D dimes are available in such low grades as so many of them circulated for more than 30 years. Another clear example is the stunning amount of 1916-D dimes discovered in the ?New York Subway Hoard?. The collectors of this hoard did not begin collecting until the 1940?s. More than 25 years after the release of the 1916-D yet 251 examples of this special coin were in the hoard.

Coins in the lowest grade of FA2 or G3 will cost upwards of $500.00 and the prices only go up from there. A VG8 is typically priced at $1300.00. While this coin is indeed pricey, it is readily available from many dealers.
The second key of the series is the 1921-D followed closely by the 1921-P. Both of these coins had mintages of just over 1 million. Both of these coins will cost over $50 for a G/VG grade.

From here, the cost of individual coins drops dramatically as the next semi-keys are 1926-S and 1931-D. Both of these can be had for under $10.00 in low grades.

A note about low grades: While you can obtain these rarities in low grades, eye appeal is NOT their strong point. Coins in AG-G condition typically show the date/partial date and mint. It is generally tough to make out details in the coins as they are well worn. I quote prices in G4 as to give you an idea of what minimum prices are for keys and semi-keys. Prime examples in the coins noted above can run into the 10?s of thousands of dollars.
While the 1945-P coin is readily available in all grades, FSB specimens are extremely rare. Many common dates of the 1940?s have dozens of coins graded in the MS-67 range while the 1945-P currently has only 3 certified PCGS coins.

Errors

Perhaps the best know error in the Mercury series is the 1942/1 overdate. These were produced at both Denver and Philadelphia with the Philadelphia variety having popularity near the 1916-D. In the lowest grades these coins will cost over $500.00 and will be hard to distinguish the error. It would be suggested to purchase these through a well known dealer and/or buying only certified coins of this error.
The other well known variety occurred in 1945 and that was a change in the size of the mint mark on San Francisco coins. Called ?Micro S?, many 1945 dated coins have a smaller ?S? mint mark and sell for a slight premium over regular ?S? coins.

Proofs

Proof Mercury dimes are quite beautiful. They were only produced for seven years, from 1936 to 1942. A complete set in PR-65 condition would cost around $5000.00

Vital Statistics Summary
Key Coin Info
Designed by: Adolph A. Weinman
Issue dates: 1916-1945
Composition: 0.900 part silver, 0.100 part copper
Diameter: 17.9 mm
Weight: 38.58 grains
Edge: Reeded
Business strike mintage: 2,677,153,880
Proof mintage: 78,648
Proof mintage: 17,353

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Fat Loss 4 Idiots
Fat Loss 4 Idiots

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Are you one of those people that love creating photo video slideshows, or photo montages, from your most cherished photos? And do you ever wonder why your slideshow seems so bland compared to other professional looking photo slideshows? There are no hidden secrets to creating dynamic and interesting photo slideshows. By following just a few simple steps, you can be on your way to creating dynamic and professional looking photo montages from your favorite photos.

1. Use high resolution good quality photos.

The first and most important step in creating a good quality photo slideshow is using good photos. Nothing ruins a slideshow more than bad photos. If you are using scanned photos, make sure they are free of dust and have been color corrected. Digital photos are a better source for slideshows as they are already digitized and ready for use in your photo slideshow program. In addition to the visual quality of the image, make sure your scanned photo or digitized image is a high enough resolution. DVD video resolution is 720×480 pixels. At the minimum, I recommend using an image at least double the resolution of DVD video. I prefer 1500×1000 pixels at the minimum for all my photos. There is a reason for this preference and I?ll explain later why this is important.

2. Fill the screen with the photo. Get rid of the black space.

Have you ever seen photo slideshows with photos in the center of the screen with black space surrounding the photo? When I create slideshows, the photo in the slideshow takes up the entire screen. There is nothing visible other than the photo. No black space is visible on the screen beyond the photo. In my opinion, having any black space outside of the photo makes the slideshow appear unprofessional. It tells me the photo being used didn?t quite fit and centering it on the screen with black space around it was the only way the photo would work. The television and computer monitor is wider than it is tall, so horizontal photos work better than vertical photos. One reason for using photos that are at least 1500×1000 pixels will ensure your vertical photos fill the horizontal space of your monitor. One rule I go by is if the photo doesn?t work, don?t use it. Even if I think it?s a great photo and I want to include it in my slideshow, if the photo won?t work on the screen, I won?t include it in the project.

3. Limit the number of transition wipes.

Some photo montage programs come with a hundred different types of transition wipes. To many, that may be cool and the more wipes the software offers, the better the program may seem to be. When I view a photo montage that uses 20 different transition wipes, it draws importance away from the photos and viewers notice the transitions more than the images. Transition wipes should appear seamless and unnoticed. In all the photo montages I create, I use no more than 1 or 2 transition wipes, and most of the time, it?s just a simple fade in fade out photo transition. Using all the transition wipes your software comes with may be a cool thing, but the focus of the slideshow, which are your photos, is lost when this is done.

4. Make sure your viewers process the images by having an adequate hold time.

When you view a slideshow, have you ever experienced photos going by too quick and missing what you just viewed? Your audience needs to see and process the photos in you slideshow in order to enjoy and remember it. In the photo slideshows I create, I make sure each of my photos hold for 5-7 seconds, depending on the tempo of the project. And this hold time does not include the 1 second transition in the front and end of each image. You will need to decide what a good hold time will be. Too short and the viewer misses what was just shown. Too long and it feels like awkward silence.

5. Zoom, pan, and hold are keys to a dynamic photo montage.

I?m sure you?ve seen photo montages that have images fade in and fade out for 10 minutes and that?s pretty much all the photo montage does with the photos. After just 3 minutes of watching, I?m sure it gets a little monotonous. The photos may be interesting, but you might as well flip through a photo album if that is all your project does. To keep things interesting, I use a combination of 3 things for each image in the photo montage. The photos will zoom in or zoom out; pan up, down, left or right; or hold in place for the duration of that image. Combining these 3 techniques for your photos will create a dynamic and interesting photo montage. Regarding the zoom technique, having a higher resolution image, I recommend 1500×1000 pixels, will ensure your image doesn?t lose quality when zooming in. Image quality will be one less thing to be concerned with when working on your slideshow if you have good photos. Use good quality photos right from the start and you won?t have to go back and rescan or find replacement photos later. One final thing to remember is not to over do it. Keep in mind how much you zoom or move the image. Your viewer needs to be able to see the photo and if you put too much movement in the photo, he or she will miss what you?re trying to show. And mix up the movement. I typically zoom and pan four or five photos, and then hold one or two.

6. Try video intros and video endings in your slideshows.

If your slideshow program allows the use of inserting video into the project, try using specific video introductions in your project. For example, if you?re creating a slideshow from pictures of your daughter?s first birthday, find or create a video introduction that says ?1st Birthday.? If you don?t know how to create a video intro, there are websites that specialize in providing videos for photo montage enthusiasts. One such website is www.instantimagers.com. They have a large library of video intros with affordable pricing. And the best thing is, you can download the video right after purchase without waiting for a cd to be shipped. Of course, check to see that your software will accept video files.

7. Keep the project at a respectable length.

You may have hundreds of photos you want to use and want the slideshow running forever, but a good slideshow run time should be 10-15 minutes. Anything longer than 15 minutes will slowly cause your audience to lose interest the longer the show runs. The creator of the slideshow may think its okay, but this will not be the case with your audience, the people you want to impress. In this case, too much of a good thing does ring true. I use about 3 songs in most of my projects. The average song is about 3.5 to 5 minutes long. Sticking to this format will keep your project within the 10-15 minute length. Add a fourth song if the playtime of your current 3 songs are too short.

8. Finish it off with a DVD box cover & disc art.

For the final touch, find artwork and print out a DVD cover that can be inserted into the DVD case. And if you have a DVD disc printer, print a nice design on the disc for that final professional touch. Again, www.instantimagers.com has a number of designs for the DVD cover & disc art. They have a great number of designs with different themes. Having some artwork for your DVD cover & DVD disc will look much better than having just a black DVD case and a white DVD disc. Not to mention, your family and friends will be very impressed!!!

I hope the above tips will help you in creating better photo montages. Try different things and see what works for you.

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Fat Loss 4 Idiots
Fat Loss 4 Idiots

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