By Tom LaMarre, Coins Magazine November 16, 2009

Dimes, dimes and more dimes. Millions and millions of them. Seated Liberty dimes poured from the Mint’s presses from the 1830s until the 1890s, helping to make the dime one of America’s mainstream coins.

It hadn’t always been that way. Although the government struck a small number of dimes in 1792 and began producing them on a larger scale in 1794, the denomination was largely unknown before the Seated Liberty era. A variety of foreign coins filled the void.

In a report written in 1817, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams said that dimes were seldom seen. In fact, Adams wrote that dimes were “never presented in their material images to the people,” and he concluded that they had “remained utterly unknown.”

Fourteen years later, the situation had not improved very much. The March 11, 1831, issue of The Pittsburgh Gazette reprinted the following item from the Boston Transcript:

“Small Coins. The attempt to depreciate the value of the small Spanish coins, and introduce into more general circulation the dimes and half dimes of the United States Mint, is likely to prove abortive.

“We understand that the Branch Bank received them this morning at the old rates, and that orders have been given at the Custom House to the same effect.”

The Seated Liberty dime helped change all that. The first Seated Liberty dimes were struck in 1837 at the Philadelphia Mint, using designs engraved by Christian Gobrecht. The obverse had only a Seated Liberty figure and the date. There were no stars. In 1839, 13 stars were added around the obverse rim.

The inscription “United States of America” appears on the reverse of the 1837 Seated Liberty dime, around a wreath of laurel leaves. “Large date” and “small date” dimes were struck at the Philadelphia Mint in the first year of the Seated Liberty design.

The New Orleans Mint began striking dimes in 1838. The 1838-O was the first branch-mint dime. “The New Orleans Mint received its first deposits of bullion on the eighth of March and commenced its operations immediately afterwards,” Mint Director Robert M. Patterson wrote in his report for 1838. “The demand for silver coinage led the officers to confine the coinage to dimes, of which 367,434 were struck before the end of July, when the work was interrupted.”

Ten of the first 30 1838-O dimes struck were reportedly placed in the cornerstone of the New American Theatre in New Orleans. The other 20 were presented as souvenirs.

Years later, Seated Liberty dimes were also produced at mints in Carson City and San Francisco.

Increased production was a major factor in the success of the Seated Liberty dime. In 1853 alone, more than 13 million dimes were struck. The same year, arrowheads were added alongside the date to indicate a weight reduction. Silver coins had become more valuable in relation to gold coins because of the California Gold Rush. In an effort to get silver coins back into circulation, their weight was reduced. Arrowheads appeared on the new, lighter dimes through 1855.

Peak production of Seated Liberty dimes occurred in the final year of the design, 1891. More than 21 million dimes were minted that year.

The dime was a respected and popular coin. Its status was reflected in the naming of the Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh, Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1864. In 1869, the Dime Bank was founded in Norwich, Conn. Across the country, there were many other “Dime” banks.

Despite the dime’s popularity, there were times when there were shortages, especially around Christmas. Exceptionally large demand was reported in December 1887. Two of the Mint’s presses were said to be “running exclusively on this coin,” even on Sundays. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of dimes were shipped to St. Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago and New York.

At times, counterfeiters seemed to be almost as busy as the Mint. In 1862, New York City police broke up a counterfeiting gang described as one of the most formidable that had been known to exist in the city. Its members had flooded New York and Brooklyn with bogus dimes that were said to be well-executed.

In 1885, counterfeit dimes circulated in Harlem, and in 1890 many New York City streetcar passengers paid their fares with counterfeit dimes.

Fake dimes flooded Poughkeepsie’s second ward in 1886. In 1887, phony dimes turned up in Kingston City, N.Y., they were reported to be “among the best counterfeits yet seen.”

It must have been difficult for counterfeiters to keep up-to-date, because genuine Seated Liberty dime underwent several design revisions. In 1860, the reverse received an all-new wreath, sometimes referred to as a “wreath of cereals.” It takes a high-grade 1860 or later dime and a strong magnifying glass to fully appreciate the beauty and detail of the revised wreath. A description of the dime’s new reverse appeared in the Bankers’ Magazine and Statistical Register shortly before it went into production:

“J. Ross Snowden, Esquire, Director of the United States Mint, states that the coinage of the dime and half dime of 1860 will be in a new and improved dress.

“The present wreath on the reverse will give place to a more appropriate and national one, being a festoon composed of the chief production of our country, interspersed with oak leaves, as emblematic of strength and durability.

“The legend ‘United States of America’ will be transferred from the reverse of the coin, where it now appears, to the obverse or principal side. The device on the obverse is not otherwise changed, but the execution of the dies is somewhat improved.”

Before the 1860 design revision, dimes struck at the branch mints had a mintmark inside the wreath. After the change, the mintmark appeared below the wreath.

Dimes disappeared from circulation during the Civil War. Ten-cent Fractional Currency notes took their place, and dimes that were minted went into storage at the Treasury Department and were not released until 1876.

In June 1873, the Boston Traveller reported that “paper dimes” were in circulation. But it said there was really no difference between a counterfeit dime and a genuine dime because “you can’t get cash for the one, and you can’t get cash for the other.”

Demand for dimes soared in the late 1800s. In 1860, Malaeska; the Indian Wife of the White Hunter, the first dime novel, was published. By 1885, a third of the books published in the United States were dime novels. Most were romance or adventure stories.

Frank Woolworth opened his first Five-and-Ten-Cent Store, in Lancaster, Pa., in 1879. No item was priced at more than a dime. Woolworth had originally opened a Five Cent Store, but it was a failure. It took the dime to make the store a success.

The dime was Annie Oakley’s favorite coin. As part of her act, she would shoot a dime tossed into midair.

Despite the many items that could be purchased for 10 cents in the late 1800s, Seated Liberty dimes became a nuisance in some parts of the country.

The Dec. 26, 1874, issue of a Western newspaper complained, “The Tribune views with dismay the approaching glut of silver coin in California and Oregon, and the consequent distress of the unfortunate restaurant-keepers who will be deluged with quarters and dimes not worth their face value in gold.”

That was just the beginning of the upturn. Dime production surged in 1875 and rose even higher in 1876. The Jan. 15, 1876, issue of the Weekly Nevada State Journal reported, “At the Carson Mint they have already begun coining dimes with the date 1876. At the rate dimes have been coined during the past few months, there will soon be enough to supply the whole population of the United States with a dime apiece.”

Still, there are some noteworthy rarities in the Seated Liberty dime series. The 1873-CC “no arrows” variety is at the head of the list. During the 1873 production run, the weight of the dime was increased from 2.25 to 2.50 grams, to put it on a metric basis. To distinguish new-standard dimes, arrowheads were added alongside the date.

Records indicate the Carson City Mint struck 12,400 1873 dimes before the new standard went into effect. Apparently all but one known specimen were melted after the changeover. The surviving example may be an Assay Commission piece that was saved. Possibly a member of the commission exchanged one of his own dimes for a specimen of the 1873-CC “no arrows” dime.

The 1873-CC “no arrows” dime has a die crack through the mintmark. The same reverse die was used to strike 1873-CC with arrows dimes and 1874-CC dimes. A characteristic of 1873 coins is that “open 3” and “closed 3” varieties were struck. The style of the numeral was changed because it was thought the closed 3 too closely resembled an “8.” The 1873-CC “no arrows” dime has a closed 3.

In 1878, an auction catalog listed an 1873-CC dime, “old style.” It realized only 17 cents and may have been a second specimen that was later lost.

The unique 1873-CC “no arrows” dime was exhibited by a Wisconsin collector, H.O. Granberg, at the American Numismatic Society in 1914. The collection was titled “Collection of a Prominent American.”

At an auction conducted by Wayte Raymond in May 1915, the 1873-CC “no arrows” dime realized $170. In the ensuing years, the dime was owned by a succession of collectors, including Rudolph Kohler, Waldo Newcomer and Charles M. Williams.

Back then, there were no coin collection publications available at newsstands, and no reference guide that was considered standard. As a result, some collectors were skeptical of the existence of the 1873-CC “no arrows” dime. In 1945, the Coin Collectors Journal said that “a certain California collector” had recently expressed the belief that the 1873-CC dime without arrows did not exist.

Dealers James Kelly and Sol Kaplan acquired the 1873-CC “no arrows” dime at a Numismatic Gallery auction in June 1950, for $3,650. The coin was sold as part of the collection of film star Adolphe Menjou, but was actually from the collection of Cincinnati insurance executive Charles Williams. The auction catalog was prepared by Abe Kosoff, who seemed unaware the dime was unique.

In November 1950, Louis Eliasberg Sr. acquired the 1873-CC “no arrows”dime. It was the last coin he needed for a complete collection of U.S. coins.

At the Bowers and Merena Eliasberg Sale in May 1996, the 1873-CC “no arrows” dime realized $550,000. Waldo Bolen became the coin’s new owner. Bolen had assembled a nearly complete set of U.S. dimes, lacking only the 1873-CC “no arrows,” and then sold the collection at auction. When the 1873-CC “no arrows” dime came on the market, he decided to buy it, if only to be able to say he had owned an example of every U.S. dime. Bolen used the dime as the nucleus of a complete 1873-CC collection, consisting of 11 coins.

In 1999, the 1873-CC “no arrows” dime was offered in a Heritage Numismatic Auctions sale. Jim Gray acquired it for $632,500.

The famous dime was auctioned again in 2004, by Bowers and Merena. Rusty Goe, owner of Southgate Coins, bought it for $891,250. Goe displayed a 12-inch Styrofoam replica of the coin in his store while the original was kept in a secure place away from the shop. It was exhibited at the Nevada State Museum in the summer of 2004. An anonymous collector bought the dime in December 2004 to complete his collection of Carson City coins.

In 2002, a second 1873-CC “no arrows” dime, graded Very Good/Fine, was reported to exist, but the story was a mistake.

Another desirable dime is the 1874-CC, which had a mintage of fewer than 11,000. About 100 are estimated to survive, and most of them are corroded or otherwise damaged. Only a few Mint State examples are known, including one that belonged to actor Buddy Ebsen. At a Superior Galleries auction in 2003, it sold for more than $160,000.

The most storied Seated Liberty dime is the 1844 Philadelphia issue, known as the “Orphan Annie.” Kansas City newspaperman Frank Ross gave the dime its nickname in 1930 because he thought it was unappreciated. According to Ross, the 1844 dime, despite a mintage of fewer than 73,000 pieces, “had no buyers, and was just an orphan in the coin world.” Ross was inspired by the “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip that originated in the 1920s.

Many conflicting legends purportedly explained the scarcity of the 1844 dime. According to one story, the forty-niners in California ordered $5,000 in dimes. Nearly the entire mintage of 1844 dimes —then several years old—was shipped from Philadelphia to St. Louis by rail, from there to Kansas City’s Westport landing by boat, and from there by covered wagon. On the overland route, the shipment was supposedly hijacked by Indians who buried the loot and then were killed.

Other legends claimed the 1844 dimes were lost at sea, destroyed in the Johnstown, Pa., flood, melted in the great Chicago fire, or taken across the border the Mexican-American War. Another theory was that the dimes were improperly alloyed, making them soft and susceptible to friction.

In an article in the October 1935 issue of The Numismatist, “Bill the Coin Man” of Elkhart, Ind., radio station WTRC wrote that no acceptable reason for the disappearance of the 1844 Philadelphia dime had ever been offered, and probably never would be.

Skeptics have claimed that Ross owned a hoard of 1844 dimes and used the “Orphan Annie” name and stories to boost their value. Today, Coin Prices lists the 1844 dime at $275 in Good-4 grade and $3,000 in Mint State-60.

A characteristic of 1844 Philadelphia dimes is that the “AM” and “RI” in “AMERICA” are connected. A hoard of 612 “Orphan Annie” dimes was offered at a Heritage Numismatic Auctions sale in July 2003, ranging in grade from Poor to Almost Uncirculated. The impressive hoard, however, was not sold.

Whether scarce or common, by the 1880s Seated Liberty dimes were produced using the same methods. Silver bullion was melted into two-pound bars, which were run through large rollers and flattened to the thinness of a dime. The strips were then treated with a type of tallow to prevent scratches. Planchets were cut from the strips and fed into the coinage presses by automatic machinery at the rate of 100 a minute.

During striking, the planchet expanded slightly and a reeded edge was impressed into the metal. In a regular, eight-hour working day, 48,000 dimes were struck. The finished coins dropped into a container and were ready to be counted.

The counter used a copper-colored tray with raised ridges spaced at the exact width of a dime. The coins were dropped into the tray and shaken rapidly by the counter. The dimes settled into the spaces between the ridges, and the surplus coins were brushed back into the bin, leaving exactly 1,250 dimes—$125 worth—in the tray.

The tray was then emptied into boxes, and the dimes were ready for shipment. Unlike higher denomination coins, dimes were not weighed to see if they were within tolerance.

In 1891, the sub-treasuries complained that recently coined New Orleans Mint dimes were imperfect, which may explain the existence of the 1891-O over horizontal O variety. At that time, work was already under way on the Seated Liberty dime’s successor. In November 1891, the Mint director submitted new designs for the dime, quarter and half dollar. The first Barber dimes were released in January 1892, bringing an end to the colorful Seated Liberty era.



More Resources:

• Standard Catalog of United States Obsolete Bank Notes 4-CD Set, 1782-1866

• Fascinating Facts, Mysteries & Myths About U.S. Coins

• 2010 Standard Catalog of World Coins 2001-Date, 4th Edition

• State Quarters Deluxe Collector's Folder