The United States Mint will release the Best of the Mint 1916 Mercury Dime Gold Coin and Silver Medal Set on June 4, 2026, at noon Eastern, the first of five gold-and-silver pairings the Mint is issuing to mark the Semiquincentennial of American independence. Catalogued as item 26BM1, the set joins a 24-karat reissue of one of the most admired designs in U.S. coinage history with a brand-new silver medal created specifically for the anniversary.
For collectors, the launch is as much a starting gun as a single release. This is set one of five, the mintage is capped at 30,000, and household orders are limited to a single set for the first 24 hours, the kind of opening-day math that tends to decide how a series is remembered.
Five Coins, Curated for an Anniversary
To build the program, the Mint assembled a list of 21 historic coins spanning the Nation’s history from its founding in 1792 into the 21st century, then narrowed it through public input and expert recommendation. Five Best of the Mint coins were selected: the 1916 Mercury Dime, the 1916 Standing Liberty Quarter Dollar, the 1916 Walking Liberty Half Dollar, the 1804 Silver Dollar, and the 1907 Saint-Gaudens High Relief $20 Gold Coin.
Each is being reissued in 24-karat gold and paired with a companion silver medal carrying a modern design inspired by the original coin. The Mercury Dime set leads the series; the Standing Liberty quarter, Walking Liberty half, 1804 dollar, and Saint-Gaudens double eagle are scheduled to follow.
The Gold Coin
The reissued dime returns Adolph A. Weinman’s 1916 Winged Liberty Head design to circulation as a one-tenth-ounce, .9999 fine gold piece struck at West Point. Weinman’s obverse shows Liberty in a winged cap, a motif meant to symbolize freedom of thought, with the reverse carrying a fasces and an olive branch, paired emblems of military readiness and the desire for peace. The inscriptions hold to the original: LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST, 1916 on the obverse, and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, E PLURIBUS UNUM, and ONE DIME on the reverse.
The one concession to 2026 is a small but pointed one. The coin carries a unique Liberty Bell privy mark bearing the numeral “250,” the Mint’s quiet signature on every piece in the program. The gold coin measures 16.50 mm with a reeded edge and a W mint mark, an Uncirculated finish standing in for the proof treatment some collectors might expect.
The Silver Medal
The companion medal is where the set stops being a reissue and becomes its own object. Its design is the work of U.S. Mint Artistic Infusion Program designer Kathryn Hudson, sculpted by Mint Medallic Artist Craig A. Campbell, and recommended to the Treasury Secretary by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee.
Rather than copy the dime, Hudson’s design compresses the entire span of the coin’s circulation, 1916 through 1945, into a single allegory that runs continuously from obverse to reverse. Liberty appears in both defensive and offensive postures, a nod to the two world wars the country fought during those years. Rays emit from her sword to stand for hope at the end of conflict. The Great Depression is present in a row of Hooverville shacks; the swirling waves behind them represent the Dust Bowl. The inscription reads simply 1916–1945.
It is, in effect, three decades of American upheaval distilled onto one ounce of .999 fine silver. The medal is struck at Philadelphia, measures 40.60 mm with a plain edge, and shares the gold coin’s Uncirculated finish.
Availability and Terms
The set goes on sale June 4, 2026, at noon Eastern, with a mintage limit of 30,000 and no separate product limit. The household order limit of one is the figure most likely to matter on launch day, and the Mint notes such limits are typically lifted 24 hours after a product goes on sale. Pricing follows the Mint’s published pricing range table for gold coins, which pegs the figure to the prevailing gold market rather than a fixed sticker, a number the Mint had not finalized at announcement. Collectors who don’t want to watch the clock can set a “Remind Me” alert through the product listing.
What It Means for Collectors
For anyone assembling the full Best of the Mint run, the Mercury Dime set is the mandatory first acquisition, and the one whose availability sets the tone for the four releases to come. For everyone else, it’s a chance to own a well-struck modern pairing that turns Weinman’s century-old design into a 250th-anniversary keepsake, alongside a silver medal that does something the gold coin deliberately does not: tell the story of the era the dime lived through. The remaining four sets will reveal whether the series can sustain that ambition. The first one sets a high bar.
