Seated Liberty Dime

The Seated Liberty Dime was struck from 1837 to 1891, is part of the Seated Liberty Series, and had several minor varieties during its run.

Specifications

 * Designer: Obverse by Thomas Sully, executed by Christian Gobrecht; Reverse by Christian Gobrecht
 * Obverse Design: Liberty sitting on a rock, wearing a dress and holding a staff with a cap
 * Reverse Design: Inscription "ONE DIME," surrounded by a wreath
 * Edge: Reeded
 * Weight: ±27 grams
 * Diameter: ±17.9 millimeters
 * Composition:  Silver (±90%), Copper (±10%)
 * Dates Minted: 1837-1891

Background
The Seated Liberty dime was introduced in 1837, replacing the Capped Bust dime midway through that year. It was struck until 1891, after which it was replaced by the Barber dime in 1892. From 1837 to 1891, the basic designed never changed: the obverse always featured a seated Miss Liberty, while on the reverse, there was always “One Dime” within a wreath. But as I said before, that basic design was tweaked pretty regularly. So let’s first take a basic overview of the eight different phases of the Seated Liberty dime. Mind you, these are not eight different design variations– in a couple of cases, the exact same design type showed up in two different phases, they were just separated by a period where a NEW design variation came and went.

Phase 1
(No Stars Type 1837-38): The first type of Seated Liberty dime looked like some experimental/pattern piece. There was the seated Miss Liberty on the obverse, but she was surrounded by a completely blank field. There was only a date beneath her. This minimalist look was quite stark, yet quite striking. It really focused the eye’s attention on the Seated Liberty figure. But this design only lasted two years: in 1837 it was only struck at the Philadelphia mint; in 1838 it was only struck at the New Orleans mint.

Phase 2
(Stars Around Rim, No Drapery 1838-40): A three year-type were there was no drapery between Miss Liberty’s elbow and her knees. But this time, stars surrounded Miss Liberty on the obverse, and would continue to do so until 1860.

Phase 3
(Drapery Added 1840-53): Now there is drapery added to Miss Liberty’s elbow.

Phase 4
(Arrows At Date Obverse 1853-55): Arrows were added to either side of the date to indicate new weight standards for silver U.S. coins.

Phase 5
(Arrows At Date Removed 1856-60): The arrows at the date are now removed. This is actually the same design type as that of Phase 3.

Phase 6
(Legend Obverse 1860-73): The biggest design change of the Seated Liberty dime period. Here, the obverse stars are replaced by the legend, “United States of America”. The reverse also has a different look, what with a fuller, bushier wreath which is more flowery and corn stalk heavy.

Phase 7
(Legend Obverse, Arrows At Date 1873-74): Once again, arrows were added to the date to indicate new weight standards in U.S. silver coins.

Phase 8
(Legend Obverse, Arrows Removed 1874-91): Basically, the exact same design as the Phase 6 Seated Liberty dimes.

As for the different phases and design variations, no one phase or design variation stands out as a rare type. Within most of those phases are rare date/mintmark combinations. There was simply little consistency when it came to the production of Seated Liberty dimes: mintages were all over the board throughout its 1837-91 time span. You’ll see mintages in the millions. You’ll see mintages of just a few thousand.

Collecting
To complete a full set of Seated Liberty dimes would be a huge, daunting task. Sure there are plenty of common, affordable dates in this series, but this series ALSO has more rare dates than many other coin series have dates! You have to bear in mind that the Seated Liberty dime was struck for 53 years at four different mints in eight different period phases, and with six different design variations– and that’s not even counting the even more minute sub-varieties like overdates, and “large date” or “small date” varieties!

The rarest dates in the series are the Carson City issues of 1871, 1873 and 1874. The 1871-CC and 1873-CC With Arrows both retails almost $2,000 in Good, while the 1874-CC retails $4.250 in Good. The 1873-CC No Arrows is so rare that values aren’t even listed– so obviously this is the rarest of all Seated Liberty dimes!

Here are other rarer dates that will cost you a few hundred dollars, even in Good: 1844, 1846, 1860-O, 1863, 1864, 1865, 1866, 1867, 1870-S, 1872-CC, 1879, 1880, 1881, and 1885-S. This isn’t even counting the scarce dates that retail $50-$150 in Good!

Actually, the first Seated Liberty dimes, the No Stars type, should actually be considered pretty good bargains. Consider: it’s the earliest Seated Liberty dime type, it has that unusual classic obverse design, it’s a two-year type and mintages in 1837 and 1838 were both around just 500,000 pieces. Still, the 1837 and 1838-O both retail just $40 in Good, $85-$100 in Fine.

The longest span of affordable “common” dates runs from 1838 through 1862. Many dates/mintmarks from that time span retail for $10-$21 in Good, $14-30 in Fine, the cheapest of these would be the 1853-55 With Arrows dimes.

Mintages dropped significantly in the 1860-74 period, but there are still a number of obtainable and affordable dates in this period as well. But as you can see from my list of rare dates, keep an eye out for Seated Liberty dimes from the 1860's, as a number of scarce to rare date/mintmark combinations come from this period!

And yes, I listed some pretty horrendously expensive Carson City Mint dimes. But the good news is, the 1875-77 Carson City dimes are quite affordable. Each of these dates retails $15 in Good, and just $26 as high up as Very Fine (a huge bargain in my book)!

Grading
The Seated Liberty dime circulated extensively, so many worn examples come down to us today. Slick, shadowy Seated Libertys with worn legends and dates are pretty common. A number were used as 19th to early 20th century Love Tokens– the back was smoothed out, and the lover’s initials placed on the face of the reverse. You’ll find many more well-preserved “With Legend” Seated Liberty dimes 1873-91, than you will the “With Stars” types of 1838-60. Key things to look for: does the Seated Liberty figure have facial detail? Robe detail? Are the stars and bars on the shield defined, and is the “Liberty” readable on the shield banner? If all these things are in place, you have a Fine to Very Fine piece. On the reverse, you want to see clear legends and leaf detail in the wreath.

Mints

 * Philadelphia Mint (No mintmark)
 * New Orleans Mint (O mintmark)
 * San Francisco Mint (S mintmark)
 * Carson City Mint (CC mintmark)