1821 10C Large Date MS(PCGS#4496)

Spring 2025 Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

3030

等级

MS65

价格

70,558

详细说明

Pleasingly original surfaces are warmly and evenly toned in olive-gray patina. Both sides are fully lustrous with a soft satin texture, and they also reveal wisps of iridescent champagne-pink and antique-gold undertones as the coin dips into a light. This lovely Gem is sharply struck in most areas, although we do note minor softness to stars 8 and 9 on the obverse and the eagle's talons on the reverse. This pattern of strike is evident on the only other high grade 1821 dime from this die pairing that we have offered in recent years - a PCGS MS-64 example that sold as lot 16118 in our March 2016 Baltimore Auction. Smooth during in-hand viewing, as befits the assigned grade, and ranking high in the Condition Census for the 1821 JR-7 dies.<p>Many Americans, particularly those far from Philadelphia, didn't know quite what to make of dimes once their circulation became more widespread in the early 1820s. In the hills of western North Carolina, newspaper accounts suggest they circulated at the same value as the more valuable and more common one real coins of the Spanish-American mints, current for 12-1/2 cents rather than 10. In 1821, however, and according to a piece published in the <em>Western Carolinian</em>, dimes finally became common enough that their value was understood to be 10 cents. Indeed, in 1820 requests for this denomination from silver bullion depositors reached a record high since the denomination's introduction in 1796, with 942,587 pieces delivered in the later year. The record was surpassed the very next year, when the Mint struck 1,186,512 dimes to fill orders from bullion depositors. Yet despite the unusually (for the era) large number of coins produced, the 1821 as an issue is scarce in Mint State. Of the estimated 3,500 to 5,000 examples of all die marriages believed extant per Winston Zack et al. (2015), perhaps only 125 are uncirculated. This one numbers among the finest certified of this paltry population, making it an excellent candidate for an advanced type set or early dime collection.