1860-S

The 1860-S Seated Liberty dime sits alongside the 1860-O as a transitional anomaly: San Francisco retained the older Stars With Drapery obverse for its 1860 coinage while Philadelphia introduced the new Legend obverse the same year. The branch struck 140,000 pieces using the existing Stars dies, more than triple the 40,000-piece 1860-O figure but still firmly within the small early-S production envelope. The coin closes out the Stars subtype at San Francisco the same way the 1860-O closes it at New Orleans: a final year of older dies, struck out of sequence with the main mint, leaving the date as a one-year obverse outlier within the broader 1860 dating. The original 1853-era weight standard of 2.49 grams remained in force, and the S mintmark continued to sit inside the wreath on the reverse.

Strike quality on the year shows the recurring late-Stars pattern at the branch: respectable obverse rendering on Liberty and the upper stars when dies were fresh, with softness arriving on the central reverse wreath leaves and the lower obverse stars as working dies aged. Survival is meaningfully thin. Most documented examples grade Good through Fine, where heavy regional circulation wore the surfaces down on coins that did enter West Coast commerce. Very Fine and Extremely Fine pieces are scarce, About Uncirculated examples genuinely difficult, and Mint State coins sit in condition-rarity territory across PCGS and NGC population reports. Authentication is straightforward thanks to the diagnostic obverse signature: any genuine 1860-S dime carries the Stars obverse, while a 1860-dated Philadelphia coin shows the Legend obverse. Altered-mintmark counterfeits (an S added to a Philadelphia 1860) fail this check immediately by carrying the wrong obverse. The 2.49-gram weight and 17.9-millimeter reeded edge complete the standard physical verification.

For collectors, the 1860-S reads as a Semi-Key with subtype-boundary significance: the final Stars obverse year at San Francisco and the larger of the two 1860 Stars transitional outliers. Circulated examples through Very Fine command meaningful premiums over generic Seated dime pricing, and the date pairs naturally with the 1860-O for any specialist working the Stars-to-Legend obverse transition. 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.