When gold from California began to flood the eastern markets in the early 1850's, a strange thing happened: Silver became more valuable (in terms of gold) and it became profitable to melt down large quantities of silver coin, sell the ingots for gold which could be swapped at face for more silver coins, which were melted, and so on. The supply of silver coins on the east coast quickly became exhausted. After a lot of dithering around, Mint Director Eckert decided to reduce the silver content in coins over 3 cents in denomination, denoted by adding arrows on each side of the date. Mintage of the new coins began in April. Only 95,000 dimes were minted in 1853 using the old standard, and finding a "no arrows" dime is not easy.. they disappear quickly from the inventories of sellers like Dick Osburn and Rich Urich, who are always on the lookout for seated type. Even this dime seemingly did not want to change hands; the fellow who sold it to me lost his safe deposit box key and had to have the locks drilled to get to it and some other coins he was selling. Anyway, it arrived yesterday, and you Coin Talkers will have the first look. PCGS graded it xf40; it has a lot of luster, but I think the mark next to Liberty's head kept it from a 45.
That's a nice coin and you are absolutely correct in that it is very tough to find the 1853 NA coinage.
Wow, a great looking coin and I appreciate the history lesson. You learn something new everyday here on CT. That is one of the things I love about this forum.
