what are they worth in different conditions? and is it a good buy?

I think I paid $10 for mine a year or two back. It is in the original mint cellophane. I think it is worth it because I think the W mint mark is cool and it added to my US mint mark collection.

I also think they have gone up a little in price since I bought mine (but most of the US coins have).

I bought the whole mint set to get the dime since I needed it for my Danscos anyway. I don't think you will find one in lower grades they were only in the mint sets. I'd do a search on Ebay for current prices. I bought the whole set for like $20 I think.

That dime will run you $18 to $20 now! Surprised that it hasn't increased any faster than what it has but its a Roosevelt dime and lets face it not a lot of collectors do any dances for the dime! I have a couple of them but I just bought the complete 96 mint sets to get them.

Another coin I should have bought 1000 of! <sigh>

Evilness.

Looks like the BIN prices of the mint sets has gone up a bit too $27 - $30 with the dime.

>> horror <<

Inflation!!!!

Can someone please lock this thread now before I start to weep?

These usually come pretty nice. Gems are common enough that you can probably get one without paying a premium. About ten or fifteen percent are gem.

Choice and superb gems get pretty pricey and show up about 2% of the time.

i believe the 96-W is a 'sleeper' for it bears the distinction of being the only commemorative dime ever issued. It was issued to commemorate 50 years of the Roosie dime.

That I did not know.

Neither did I

nor I...

I need one.

who has a spare one.......

Holy Cow! New coin to keep an eye out for!

Well, you can look for one, but the odds of finding one in circulation are pretty slim since they were only made for the 1996 mint set. While techinically true, the 1996-W dime is not a commemorative in the design sense since it has the same design as all other issues, but the reason it was included in the 1996 mint set was because it was the 50th year of the Roosevelt dime. I have two personally, one in my dime book and one in my 96 mint set. The coin itself is unremarkable outside the mintmark, as it has the same flat low-relief appearance as every other coin since the changes made to the dies in 1990.

The mint director (Phillip Diehl) was also looking for a way to thank the long term customer for mint sets. It was apparent by '96 that the demographic for mint set buyers would be changing and ha wanted to thank the old buyers who in those days had very little reason to be pleased with their previous purchases.

It is interesting that the '95 to date mint sets have all held their value better than previous sets.

The '96-W is also the lowest mintage Roosy unless you include the '82-NMM.

Lucky for my daughter, her birth year 1996 is when I bought her mint set for her birthday.

I think he wanted to try and boost mint set sales so he had this little item put in that was the only one of its kind and then advertised it well ahead of time.

It was well known in advance that it would be included.

I was surprised that sales increased only 30% over the previous couple years.

It was one of the few times that I purchased anything directly from the mint, but
perhaps it would have been better to wait since the quality was nothing special
and the price dropped from the $45 (for five) issue price to as low as $7 by '98.
I did buy some more at $7 and was able to cherry pick them.