In the mid 1830s mint director Robert Maskell Patterson decided that the time had come to replace the Capped Bust design, which had appeared on all silver coinage since 1807. Patterson greatly admired the seated Britannia figure that had appeared on British coins for many years. He also may have favored a more realistic depiction of the American eagle on future issues of U.S. coinage. To that end he commissioned artists Thomas Sully and Titian Peale to provide some sketches. Peal and Sully provided a number of seated liberty sketches, and one drawing survives by mint engraver William Kneass. After Kneass suffered a stroke that partially incapacitated him in the summer of 1835, Patterson hired Christian Gobrecht as an assistant although Gobrecht was the de facto chief engraver because of Kneass' illness. Gobrecht refined the Peale and Sully liberty seated sketches with drawings of his own and expanded upon Titian Peale's flying eagle designs to create the beautiful silver dollars that bear his name. The Gobrecht dollar design featured a lady seated on a boulder with an American shield in front of the stone. The word "LIBERTY" is on a ribbon draped in front of the shield. Ms. Liberty holds a staff with a liberty cap hung at the top. The reverse was dominated by a magnificent eagle flying in a universe of stars. For reasons unknown the flying eagle design was scrapped, and an updated version of the old motif was retained when the quarter, half dollar and silver dollar went into mass production. Christian Gobrecht introduced his Liberty Seated Design on his 1836 Seated Dollar. For reasons unknown, the mint did not use the beautiful Flying Eagle design that appeared on the reverse. This is one of the 1,000 Gobrecht Dollars that were issued in 1836. Restrikes were made in 1837 and in later years, all the way until the mid to late 1850s. In 1837 the Philadelphia mint issued the first dimes with the Seated Liberty design. The obverse was a copy of the Gobrecht dollar with no stars surrounding the seated liberty figure, which gave the coin a cameo appearance. Wisely Gobrecht decided to omit the presence of an eagle on the reverse and replaced it with a simple wreath, the legend "United States of America," and the denomination, "half dime" or "dime" in the center. The dime and half dime were too small to accommodate a highly detailed depiction of the national bird, and quite often the eagle had not been fully struck up on those small coins in the past. Today collectors admire the No Stars dime as a clean, attractive design, but the mint officials of the period did not agree. In 1838 13 stars were added around the figure of Liberty and would remain as a part of the design until 1860. An 1837 No Stars Dime Grobrecht added stars to his design in 1838. The design would remain quite similar to this until 1860, but advanced type collectors recognize this as the "No Drapery" type. The drapery, visible on the next coin, is a fold of cloth that Robert Ball Hughes added to the design when he modified it in 1840. In 1840 Robert Patterson hired Robert Ball Hughes to modify the Seated Liberty designs. Hughes' work is chiefly noted for an extra fold of cloth he placed on the left elbow of Ms. Liberty. Collectors refer to this modified design as the "With Drapery" type. Hughes made other changes to the design in addition to the drapery. The shield upon which Ms. Liberty sat was positioned perpendicular to the ground and the overall depiction of the liberty figure was less artfully rendered. The "With Drapery" type dime, 1840 - 1859, excluding 1853 to 1855 when arrows were added to either side of the date. The discovery of gold in California and the resulting explosion in the supply of the precious metal would force the next minor change to the dime design. By the early 1850s the change in the price ratio between gold and silver made it profitable to melt all of the silver coins that the United States had issued up to that point except the Silver Three Cent Piece. This forced a reduction in the weight of all the silver coins from the tiny half dime to the half dollar. For the dime this weight reduction was noted by the placement of arrows at both ends of the date. The purpose of these marks was inform anyone who might melt these coins for their metal content that it would not be worth their while. The arrows appeared on the dime from 1853 to 1855. The "With Arrows" type, 1853-5. Continued, next post.
Great stuff, John....will read these lengthy pieces later today but thanks for taking the time to write them.
In 1860 chief mint engraver, James Longacre, redesigned the half dime and dime. He moved the legend, "United States of America," from the reverse to the obverse and beefed up the wreath on the reverse to include a number of American agricultural products including corn, wheat and tobacco. This design would continue for the remainder of the Liberty Seated dime run until 1891 with one minor variation. In 1873 Congress voted to increase the weight of the dime, quarter and half dollar slightly to bring it up to a an even Metric amount. The dime now weighed exactly 2.5 grams. The idea probably stemmed from the concept of creating an international coinage that could used in many European countries. The $4 gold piece or "Stella" was the most famous coin that resulted from this concept, but the idea never came to fruition. The Legend Obverse Seated Dime, 1860 to 1891, excluding 1873-4 The "With Arrows" Dime, 1873-4 In 1891 the powers in charge decided that more than half a century was long enough for the Liberty Seated design and set out to change it. A group of ten professional artists were invited to submit designs. When Augustus St. Gaudens demanded that the artists be compensated for their design proposals, the treasury secretary scrapped the artist proposal and opened up the design competition to the general public. After a three man panel, which included St. Gaudens and mint engraver, Charles Barber, decided that none of the 300+ designs from the public were acceptable, the treasury secretary assigned the project to Barber. St. Gaudens was incensed by this decision. It would mark the beginning of running feud between Barber and St. Gaudens that would last for the remainder of both of their lives. Charles Barber's bust of Ms. Liberty resembled the young portraits of British Queen Victoria that had appeared on English coinage. Many critics found the designs for the dime, quarter and half dollar that bear his name, bland and uninspiring. Oddly Barber chose to retain the same reverse design that had been used for the Liberty Seated dime on his Barber dime. The Barber Dime, 1892 - 1916 By 1916 many mint officials had become disenchanted with the Barber coin designs and were looking for changes. Theodore Roosevelt had stated the movement to upgrade the designs on American coins when he asked Augustus St. Gaudens to redesign several U.S. coins a decade before. Over bookings and terminal illness prevented St. Gaudens from completing that project, but St. Gaudens and Roosevelt had changed the mint design procedures. By 1916 the Barber designs had been in circulation for 25 years, and the law allowed the secretary of the treasury to authorize new designs without Congressional approval. The result was a contest between three artists, Herman MacNeil, Adolph Weinman and Albin Polasek. Each artist was scheduled to design one of three denominations, the dime, quarter or half dollar. MacNeil redesigned the quarter with his Standing Liberty design, and Weinman's designs won the competition for the dime and half dollar, which left Polasek on the sidelines. Weinman's featured a Ms. Liberty in a sort of "flapper's cap" with a wing on the side of her head. Although the symbolism was intended to imply genius and freedom of thought, it has since been called the Mercury dime. The reverse featured the fasces which is an ax supported by a bundle of rods dating from the Romans that implied strength though united numbers. The design was introduced in 1916 and continued until 1945. Mercury Dime, 1916 - 1945 After Franklin Roosevelt died in 1945 Congress sought to issue a coin in his memory. The result was the Roosevelt dime. Although Roosevelt avoided making an issue of the fact that he had been crippled by polio in the early 1920s, he had lent his support to a rehabilitation center in Warm Springs, Georgia and the March of Dimes charity which was dedicated to finding ways to prevent and cure the dreaded disease. That charitable support made the dime a perfect fit for the Roosevelt coin. In a break with tradition, chief mint engraver, John Sinnock designed the new coin. It marked the first time in more than 50 years that an in-house mint employee had designed a coin for use in general circulation. The silver Roosevelt Dime, 1946 - 1964 To be continued
The Roosevelt dime would remain unchanged from 1946 until 1965. By that time the price of silver had risen to point where Congress had to act. The Coinage Act of 1965 removed all of the silver from the dime and quarter and replaced it with the copper-nickel clad coinage. In a compromise, the half dollar was struck on a 40% silver clad planchet that retained the general look of the old 90% silver coinage. The Copper-Nickel Clad Roosevelt Dime, 1965 - Present As inflation continues to eat at the value of our currency, the dime is gradually headed toward status of the cent and the nickel. Neither of those coin have much buying power, and it now costs the mint more to produce the cent and nickel than their face value. Sadly the dime might headed toward the same fate. The End!
More comments. What happened to the flying eagle? From what I have seen it pretty much came down to disagreements over the birds anatomy, and probably just too much going on at the mint at the time which made it easier to just go with a modified version of what they were already using. The basic design for the obv was approved by the President in early 1836 (from letter dated 1/12/1836) It gives me pleasure to state, that the President approves of the die [xx] transmitted in your letter of the 10th instant: although it is to be regretted that the robe of liberty had not been somewhat higher, and the foot visible, so as to show more distinctly, the design and character of the impression. By April 9 the obv die was done ut the rev had not been started. The description of what it would look like is found in a letter of that date. The die for the reverse is not yet commenced, but I send you the drawing which we propose to follow, - this new sketch being that which we propose. The drawing is true to nature, for it is taken from the eagle itself, - a bird, recently killed, having been prepared and placed in the attitude which we had selected. The eagle is flying, and, like the country of which it is the emblem, it's course is onward and upward. I propose to follow the letter of the law as to the legend on the reverse, and to introduce nothing but the words "United States of America" around the margin, and the denomination of the coin. The absurdity of the shield sticking to the breast of a bird is avoided, - the shield, with its 13 stripes, being placed with the figure of Liberty, on the face of the coin. The arrows and branch are also removed from the eagles claws, as contrary to nature and good taste. A constellation of stars, equal to the number of states, is distributed irregularity over the sky supposes it to be seen beyond the eagle, - instead of having 13 equal stars stiffly arranged in line around the margin. In a reply on April 11 from the Sec of the Treasury the disapprements about the eagle first start. , that no objections to the proposed emblems is seen worth noticing, except that the attitude of the eagle for flight on its prey is considered best in that way when India inks is used, and for distant flight, that with this view, thou in the last perhaps, the mouth should be closed. The Director responds on the 14th. I am glad to find that our dies and designs for the new coinage meet your approbation. Your suggestion that the mouth of the flying eagle should be closed had also been made known to the artist, and the change was tried; but the effect was thereby injured in two accounts, - first by taking away from the spirited appearance of the bird, and secondly by smoothing down the feathers of the neck, which are never ruffled except when the mouth is open. There has been great difficulty in getting a good design for the eagle. I am confident that not less than thirty sketches have been rejected: indeed we feared, at one time, that the flying eagle would have to be abandoned entirely. On July 5th the Director still isn't happy withthe eagle. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 3rd, and I send with this mail, a box containing fifty of our new dollars, in compliance with your request. You will perceive that they are of the coinage of 1836, and consequently of the old standard. The coinage of dollars has not been renewed, partly because the coin is not so convenient as the half dollar, and partly because I am not satisfied with the eagle. After several more trials the rev was finally approved on August 27th The impression of the reverse intended for the new dollar, received in your letter of the 25th instant, is approved. Finally in September the dies are ready. Sept 22, 1836 The dies for the new dollar having been sunk by Mr. Gobrecht, and the impressions approved by the Treasury Department, I am accordingly desirous that you shall take without delay, the necessary measures for an early issue of dollar coins. For this object I pray you to have the hubs and working dies prepared, and the proper arrangements adopted, for cutting and milling of the planchets, and coining them in the large screw press, - the pieces being struck in a close reeded or grooved collar. This is the last I have on the dollar coins, but just a few months later the Act of 1837 was passed creating three new Mints and a passel of headaches for the Mint. He had no choice, the Act of 1837 specifically omitted the use of the eagle on the half dime and dime. " but on the reverse of the dime and half dime, cent and half cent, the figure of the eagle shall be omitted." Big surprise, three judges, two of which believed that they were the only person qualified to design the coin, and who had had their designs rejected. It was a forgone conclusion that no one would win this competition. The law allowed it, but for some reason from reading documents from the mint at the time, it seems they misinterpreted the law to mean that the designs HAD to be changed every 25 years.
