To most people today it must seem that the Roosevelt dime has always been the 10c coin of the realm. By contrast, I was born when the Mercury dime was still being minted, and when I became aware of coins in circulation, Mercury dimes were still seen about as often as Roosevelt dimes.
For collectors filling coin albums in the mid to late 1950s, the Roosevelt dime book was easy to fill from circulation, with the only slightly problematic dates being 1949-S, 1950-S, 1951-S, and the three 1955s (PDS). When I started looking through dime rolls in the summer of 1959, even the problematic dates weren’t worth keeping. Of course, after the clads appeared, any silver dime became worth saving.
In the 1970s, Roosevelt dimes sold for a fraction of what they’re worth today. I remember getting a list from a seller in which he advertised a complete set of mint-state silver Roosevelts for $50! He explained this by saying that he was breaking up a roll set. This was a heck of a bargain when you figure there are 48 different date/mintmark combinations in the 1946-1964 silver set.
I told my department head about the sale, and together we ordered six sets. Each set was packaged in a dime tube with a crimped piece
