# Face on Mercury Dime **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [June 11, 2000, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/face-on-mercury-dime/21999 "2000-06-11T02:31:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mc2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@mc2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mc2)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2000, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/face-on-mercury-dime/21999/1 "2000-06-11T02:31:52Z")
In [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdime.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdime.html), BJJTshield asks whose face used to be on the dime before the current [Roosevelt] dime, introduced in 1946. The dime before 1946 was the Winged Liberty Head dime, depicting a female head of Liberty wearing a winged helmet. It was designed by sculptor Adolph A. Weinman and introduced in 1915. Despite the obvious femaleness of the depiction, the dime is widely referred to as the Mercury dime, after the winged helmet of the Roman god. The allegorical figure of Liberty is historically the most popular design for US coins. In fact, no US coin depicted an actual person until the Lincoln penny was introduced in 1909 for the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth. Literally, however, the face is that of Elsie Kachel Stevens, the young wife of poet Wallace Stevens. The couple rented rooms from Weinman, who used a bust of Elsie he made in 1913 as the model for the coin. Source: [http://www.coinworld.com/reading/collector/44wingeddimes.html](http://www.coinworld.com/reading/collector/44wingeddimes.html) ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/face-on-mercury-dime/21999/2 "2000-06-15T04:38:17Z")
So then, whose faces were the models for the other Lady Liberties that have graced U.S. coinage down through the 19th century?