1865 Liberty Seated Dime

This issue had a fairly typical mintage for San Francisco Mint dimes of the early-mid 1860s. These coins circulated extensively, with Mint State pieces surviving by chance alone. Such coins are very rare, and most are quite poorly struck, as in the piece illustrated. Particularly indistinct is the mintmark, and this problem has led to many worn 1865 S dimes being offered as the much more elusive 1865(P) issue. The Philadelphia Mint shipped four 1865-dated obverse dies to San Francisco in November of 1864. Three of these have been identified by numismatists, and Gerry Fortin’s website shows them paired in five different combinations with three reverse dies left over from earlier shipments.