Help With 1850-O Dime

to CCF. Here is some info hope it helps. http://www.coincommunity.com/us_dim...rty_dime.asp
John1

I'm no expert on Seated dime varieties but I am fairly certain it is a small O

http://www.seateddimevarieties.com/...ovarpage.htm

F-103 is the only variety listed with a small O mint mark http://www.seateddimevarieties.com/..._103page.htm

-MV

Welcome to Coin Community, twholt. This is a rather neat coin to offer as an introduction.

It's a Small O, known as Fortin-103, the only Small O variety. The total mintage of 510,000 wasn't terribly low for the era, but something extraordinary had happened: the California Gold Rush. So much gold being dumped into the market didn't so much devalue gold as it raised the perceived value of silver, beyond its' monetary worth. A *lot* of silver was melted in those years, and you can see this reflected in just how difficult it is to find one of these.

It's like this: If you discount very low-mintage varieties - coins whose designs changed during that year's mintage and the like - expressed as a totality from that year and mint the 1850-O Dime is the single rarest in the whole series offered at auction. Here's my source, count for yourself:

http://www.pcgs.com/auctionprices/

This one is a true sleeper, pretty darned expensive in higher grades but in terms of survival to our time it's one of the rarest coins you can find in any grade. Nobody seems to get this, and as a result they come fairly cheap. This is somewhat a generalization you can apply to all silver Minors (small denomination coins) of that time in the first few years after the Gold Rush.

Yours is in pretty good shape. I cannot comment on surface originality (prized in numismatics) due to how bright the images are, but in technical terms it sure looks to me to be in Extremely Fine to Almost Uncirculated condition. If those surfaces are deemed original by a reputable third-party grader ( TPG), you're holding a near-$500 coin, graded and offered by a major auctioneer. If they are not, that value will drop dramatically, probably by half, but still worth a pretty good night on the town.

Between the two major TPG's - PCGS and NGC - barely 50 in this grade or better have ever been graded. And you may assume that many of these were second and third attempts, repeated in an attempt to achieve a higher grade.

This one is rare. They're going for a song on ebay in lower grades, too. There's a real disconnect here.

twholt!


I echo SsuperDdave's words: Nice coin with which to introduce yourself!!

He is by far the expert to listen to for value and rarity; I just happen to have a Large O 1850 Dime to which you can compare yours, showing, obviously, that yours is a Small O!:

I should qualify some of what I said. It will not be easy to realize the value of this coin at retail. The collector base - dedicated Seated dime specialists - is very small. That's why they're cheap on ebay - the supply/demand equation falls short on the latter end.

We'll really need better images to offer opinion on your coin; below a certain quality having it slabbed may not be cost-effective for you. I see yours as being of higher grade than Moe's - even in your images I see more detail in the hair and on the flag than his. The differences may not be visible to a new collector such as yourself.

Do all the stars show their center line detail?

This is a small O and a much better date. Yours appears to have XF detail and is cleaned but still has significant value. Survival estimate for this date/mm is 250 pieces in all grades and as such it's a $200 coin retail unless it's has major problems (and yours doesn't look to). Some better images would clarify things.

Maybe these will look show a little more detail.

I take pics through a jeweler's loupe using the macro setting on my cheapo camera; any magnifying glass helps. Alternatively you can use a macro (close object) setting and back away 12"-18" and crop your images down with some editing software.

Anyways, you've got a pretty nice 10 cent piece.