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Message:: [QUOTE="johnmilton, post: 4355786, member: 101855"]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. [ATTACH=full]1101769[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1101770[/ATTACH]  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 [ATTACH=full]1101772[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1101773[/ATTACH] 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. [ATTACH=full]1101774[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1101775[/ATTACH] 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. [ATTACH=full]1101776[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1101777[/ATTACH] 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. [ATTACH=full]1101778[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1101779[/ATTACH] Continued, next post.[/QUOTE]

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