1821 Small Date

The 1821 Small Date Capped Bust dime is the companion variety to its better-known Large Date sister, and it is the scarcer of the two. Mint workers that year used two different sets of date punches, and the Small Date set produced numerals that sit lower and tighter against the bust, with digits roughly twenty percent shorter than the Large Date logotype. Specialists in early dimes have catalogued at least five separate die marriages tied to the Small Date logotype, including the marriages numbered JR-2, JR-7, JR-8, JR-9, and JR-10 in the standard reference, each pairing a Small Date obverse with a distinct reverse die. The combined 1821 mintage of 1,186,512 was a milestone, marking the first time a Philadelphia dime delivery passed the one-million-piece threshold, but that overall figure splits unevenly between the two date sizes, with the Small Date drawing the shorter end.

Authentication starts at the date itself, which is why a jeweler loupe and a millimeter scale earn their keep on this issue. Measure the height of the digits: genuine Small Date numerals run noticeably shorter and more crowded than Large Date numerals on a confirmed comparison piece, and any 1821 dime whose digits match Large Date proportions is misattributed regardless of what a flip insert claims. Weight should sit at 2.7 grams on a calibrated scale, and the diameter should measure 18.8 millimeters, the Large Type figure used before the close collar arrived in 1828. Edge reeding should be sharp and evenly spaced rather than soft or interrupted, since cast counterfeits routinely lose definition along the rim and show a grainy or pebbled surface texture under magnification instead of the flowing luster of a struck piece. Slabbed examples from major grading services typically carry the Small Date attribution on the label, which lets a collector confirm the variety without relying on a raw measurement.

Survival across all 1821 Small Date marriages is believed to run in the low thousands, with circulated pieces in Good through Very Fine grades forming the bulk of what trades hands and Mint State survivors classed as genuinely scarce. The variety carries a Semi-Key designation on this site because demand from die marriage collectors competes with general type buyers, and that overlapping demand keeps prices well above the Large Date in matching grades. For the broader context of the John Reich design, the 1828 transition from Large Type to Small Type, and the full run of dates and varieties that frame this issue, see the Capped Bust Dime series history.