1859

The 1859 Philadelphia dime is the penultimate Stars With Drapery issue, struck in the last full year before the 1860 Legend transition removed the 13 obverse stars from the design entirely. Philadelphia delivered 430,000 pieces, a noticeably reduced figure compared with the 1.54-million output of 1858 and a fraction of the multimillion-piece deliveries the main mint had managed earlier in the decade. The contraction was demand-driven rather than supply-driven: the bullion market favored exporting silver overseas through the late 1850s, and Mint Director James Ross Snowden documented the resulting shortage of small change in his annual reports. The coin carries the 2.49-gram weight standard the Coinage Act of 1853 established, with the obverse stars circling Liberty and a plain reverse wreath inside which Philadelphia operated without a mintmark.

Strike quality on the year is generally good for a Philadelphia Seated dime, with Liberty's head, shield verticals, and obverse stars rendered cleanly on early-state dies. Recurring softness shows on the central reverse wreath bows and the lower obverse stars as working dies aged into late states. Survival across grades is broad in mid-circulated condition (Good through Very Fine), thins above Extremely Fine, and remains genuinely scarce in problem-free About Uncirculated and Mint State. Authentication relies on the 2.49-gram weight, 17.9-millimeter reeded edge, and the unmistakable Stars obverse, which separates 1859 production from the 1860 Legend dies it would soon replace. Greer catalogs the year's working die marriages, with date logotype variations (small date versus large date positioning) and reverse die cracks through the wreath leaves serving as the principal attribution markers for specialists chasing variety detail.

For collectors, the 1859 reads as an attainable Stars With Drapery date with a direct historical anchor: this is the last full year of the stars obverse on a Philadelphia dime, and any future date-and-mint set ends the Stars subtype here. Circulated examples surface at moderate prices through Very Fine, with Mint State coins above MS62 worth the search on eye appeal rather than the gamble on a sight-unseen purchase. For the broader story of Gobrecht's design, the 1860 Stars-to-Legend obverse transition, and the series' production arc, see the Seated Liberty Dime series history.