Wednesday is my day to "go out into the world." I get to go to the food store and the post office. For the rest of week I stay at hom. I don't have a haz-mat suit yet, but I am wearing mask, which steams my glasses and feels like I'm breathing in a box. As any rate, here is the first of a two part article from the archives. One of the great contributions that the American founding fathers made to the world of commerce was the invention of the decimal system of coinage. Prior to that many of the world's monetary systems were divided into inconvenient parts such as pieces of eight for the Spanish dollar and the confusing array of pence, shillings and pounds in the British system. The Coinage Act of 1792 divided the silver dollar into 100 cents and for the gold coinage, the eagle or $10 gold piece became the basic unit. This innovation made it far easier for those who used the new American monetary system to make change for customers and maintain accounting records. Over the succeeding years many nations of the world have seen the genius of the decimal monetary system and have adapted it for their currencies. It may come as somewhat of a surprise, but only four of the six subsidiary coins with values lower than a dollar were directly connected to the decimal monetary system. These included the half cent, cent, half dime and dime. The half dollar had been a part of the Spanish system in the form of the four reale piece which was half of the eight reale or dollar coin. Similarly the quarter or "two bits" was a concession to the Spanish monetary system and was inconsistent with the decimal system. Congress had considered a twenty cent piece or "double dime," but rejected it in favor of the more familiar two reales, which had been circulating in colonial America for many years. This Spanish two reales piece is the ancester of the modern quarter dollar. The first United States mint got off to a slow start. The coinage of gold and silver was delayed for more than a year and a half because the chief coiner and chief assayer were unable to post the $10,000 bonds that the 1792 Coinage Act required. Finally secretary of state, Thomas Jefferson, who had the cabinet level responsibility for the mint, intervened. He convinced Congress to lower the bonding requirements and helped the affected mint officials to obtain loans to post their bonds. In October 1794 the mint issued the first silver dollars, and the first half dollars made their debut in November. Although the mint did issue half dimes that bore the date 1794, those pieces were issued in March of 1795. The Philadelphia Mint issued half dimes, half dollars and dollars dated 1794. Research into mint records and die variety information indicate that this 1794 half dime was actually struck in 1795. Banks and other private business concerns supplied the gold and silver that was used in the early U.S. coinage. Those depositors could specify which denominations they desired. Most depositors preferred silver dollars. When the mint was unable to produce those pieces because of technical inadequacies, depositors ordered half dollars. Depositors requested the smaller silver pieces less often. Sometimes the smaller coins were used only to balance accounts which came to less than even dollar amounts. For these reasons that the mint did not deliver the first dimes until January 1796. It is believed that this 1796 dime was made from the first set of dies that were used to strike dimes in 1796. The die cud (lump) that appears to the left of the date is the distinctive feature. Parallel lines on the reverse, which look like scratches, that appear on this piece are adjustment marks. Each planchet was weighed. Underweight planchets had to be melted, but overweight coin blanks were made lighter by scraping off the excess metal. The women who assigned to perform this task were the lowest paid workers at the first mint. Records show they were paid 66 cents for a sun up to sun down workday. The first dimes, which were designed by Robert Scott, featured a Draped Bust of Liberty facing right. The word "LIBERTY" appeared above her head, and the date was below the bust. Arranged on either side was a varying number of stars. In 1796 there were 15 stars, one for each state in the Union. In 1797 a 16th star was added when Tennessee became a state. At the end of year, the number was reduced to 13 in honor of the original states, because there was insufficient room for additional stars. The reverse featured a small, young eagle that appears to be emerging into a new world. Its wings are outstretched, and it appears to be standing on a cloud. It is surrounded by a wreath and the legend, "United States of America." Critics did not care for the Small Eagle design. One of them characterized it as a "turkey-buzzard." The very first dimes that were minted have a distinctive mark although it was not intentional. To the left of the date there is a lump of metal or a "cud" as numismatists call them. This type of mark results when a piece of metal breaks off the coin die which creates a void in the striking surface. This piece is among the most common of the six known 1796 dime die varieties. The Draped Bust, Small Eagle dimes were issued in 1796 and 1797; 1796 is the more common date. Complaints about the Small Eagle reverse prompted mint officials to replace it in 1798. The new reverse bore the Heraldic Eagle that had been introduced on the quarter eagle or $2.50 gold in 1796. This eagle has a more majestic appearance with its wings pointing upward and the U.S. shield on its breast. Interestingly the diameter of the early dime and quarter eagle are the same. This allowed mint officials to use a few reverse dies on both coins for several years. These instances are the only examples of when the same die was used on two denominations in United States coinage. The $2.50 gold piece, or quarter eagle, had the same diameter as the dime. That allowed mint officials to use the same reverse dies for the dime and the quarter eagle. The reverse die that was used to strike this 1804 quarter eagle was also used to strike the 1804 dimes. The Draped Bust, Heraldic Eagles design appeared on all U.S. silver coins from 1798 to 1807, although no dimes were issued in 1799 and 1806. The most common dates for type coin purposes are the 1805 and 1807 pieces. All of the 1807 dimes were struck from a single die pair. Toward the end of the run, many of these pieces were poorly made with badly marred fields and weak lettering, especially on the legend, "United States of America." Therefore the 1805 dime is often the coin of choice for type collectors. Continued with the next post.
In 1807 Jon Reich was hired as a designer and die maker at the mint. One of his assignments was to re-design every coin that was then in circulation. Reich's designs, which were the same for every silver coin, featured a capped bust of Liberty on the obverse and a modified heraldic eagle on the reverse. Reich's critics claimed that it was modeled after "his fat mistress." At first Reich's priorities centered upon the half dollar, quarter eagle and half eagle in 1807 and 1808. He did not get around to re-designing the dime until 1809. The issuance of dimes was sporadic until the 1820s when the coins were produced on a fairly regular basis. The "Wide Border" type of Capped Bust Dime was issued from 1809 to 1828. The Capped Bust dime is divided into two subtypes. The Wide Border variety (1809 - 1828) has dentiles around the rim of the coin and the diameter tends to vary because the coins were struck with an open collar. The reeding around the edge was added in a separate operation. The later pieces (1828 - 1837) has beaded borders and uniform diameters. These dimes were stuck with a close collar which imparted the reeding at the time that it was struck. The "Close Collar" Dime Type was issued from 1828 to 1837. In 1836 Christian Gobrecht was hired at the mint. One of his first assignments would be to develop new designs for U.S. gold and silver coinage. Gobrecht would soon place his mark upon the dime and every other United States coin. Stay tuned for part 2.
I will in healthcare and wear a mask the entire time at work. Pull it up on your nose a little higher without your glasses on and then put your glasses on, making sure the nose piece seals the mask a bit. This usually keeps the fogging to a minimum
Nobody cared about rotated dies until a few years ago. It's not unusual on the early U.S. coinage. I wish I had the 1804 dime that goes with that coin, but the 1804 dime is really tough. I came within one bid of buying one many years ago but ran out of money. The 1832 dime is really nice. It was struck with rusted dies, but it still came out really sharp with great detail. It's an NGC MS-65. Philadelphia can be very humid in the summer, and if the mint employees were not careful, the dies could rust. Sometimes they removed the rust, but die polishing can also remove design detail.
Couple comments. Russia adopt a decimal coinage system in 1710. They were the first country to adopt it. Maybe Jefferson modeled our system on theirs. Some references have said that Jefferson paid the coiner and assayers bonds some have said Rittenhouse. Actually neither of them did. Through Jeffersons intersession the bonds were reduced to $5,000 for the coiner and $1,000 for the assayer. However neither the coiner nor the assayer were yet able to post the bonds on their own. The assayer Albion Cox's bond was posted by Charles Gilchrist. Somewhere I have copies of the bonds. Found Henry Voights bond, his was posted by himself and a group of four others Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, Peter Muhlenberg, Henry Kammeret, and Nickolas Lutz. Gilchrist was probably sorry he posted Cox's bond. When the assayer died in office, upon settling his accounts at the mint there was a shortage of about $941 which would have come out of Gilchrist's bond. There are 2 known examples of the 1796 dime without the cud at star 1, one is from a perfect die, and the other shows the die crack showing where the piece would drop out of the die to form the cud. Several dies were used on both the quarter eagle and the dime, they were always used on the quarter eagles first, retired from use there, and then used on the dimes. There is no case where a die was first used on the dime.
