1862 Proof

The 1862 proof dime is a wartime issue from the Philadelphia Mint, struck during the second full year of the Civil War as the public proof program ran well below its late-1850s capacity. John Dannreuther's research on early proof coinage places 1862 delivery at roughly 550 pieces, a sharp pullback from the 1,000-piece nominal figure of 1860 and 1861, driven by the December 30, 1861 specie suspension, silver hoarding, and depressed collector demand as hard coin withdrew from Northern circulation. Survival lands the issue at Sheldon R-4 (76 to 200 known across all grades), with cameo and deep cameo subsets substantially scarcer. The 847,000 figure shown on this page is the 1862 Philadelphia business-strike delivery and has no bearing on this entry; the proof was struck from separately prepared dies and silver planchets on a medal press in a small, identifiable run.

Authentication rests on structural diagnostics that distinguish a true proof from prooflike business strikes the 847,000-piece circulation run produced in modest quantity. A genuine 1862 proof reads as deeply mirrored, watery fields with controlled die-polish lines visible under a 10x loupe (a jeweler's magnifier), set against frosted devices on early die states. Rims must be fully squared and raised perpendicular to the field rather than rolled, the signature of multiple medal-press blows rather than a single circulation strike, and denticles (the tooth-like beads ringing the rim) should be sharp and fully formed on both sides. The obverse must show the Legend subtype with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA wrapping the field, paired with the Cereal Wreath reverse the Mint introduced in 1860. Weight must hold at 2.49 grams on a .900 fine silver planchet at 17.9 millimeters with a reeded edge; any candidate off-weight or off-diameter is disqualified outright. PCGS or NGC encapsulation is the working standard for any candidate offered outside a known specialist holding.

For collectors, the 1862 sits in the wartime cohort of the Philadelphia proof dime series, paired with 1861, 1863, and 1864 as the four dates struck under the deepest Civil War contraction. The 550-piece delivery makes it scarcer than the 1858 through 1861 program-launch issues and meaningfully scarcer than the post-1865 recovery years, and realized prices climb sharply with cameo contrast and grade. PCGS or NGC encapsulation is functionally required for the coin to trade at proof prices. The Regular classification on this page follows site convention for proof entries; rarity and wartime context are carried by the prose, not the badge. Specialists building the 1858 through 1891 Philadelphia proof dime run treat the 1861 through 1864 block as the tightest middle section of the series, where appearance frequency drops and competition for cameo examples sharpens. For the broader story of Gobrecht's design, the early proof program, and the 1860 Stars-to-Legend obverse transition, see the Seated Liberty Dime series history.