1867-S

San Francisco struck 140,000 dimes in 1867, the working-volume Pacific Coast figure that stood roughly twenty times larger than the parent mint's 6,625-piece run for the same year. The same geographic split that governed Civil War silver production carried into Reconstruction without interruption. California and the Nevada Territory continued transacting in metal under their own legal-tender preferences while the eastern states remained on greenback circulation under the December 30, 1861 specie suspension, and the branch mint kept its presses moving to feed mining payrolls, waterfront commerce, and the freight trade running through the Comstock. The 1867-S left the dies into actively working monetary channels, circulated hard for years, and almost none of the original run was saved as collector material at the time.

That circulation pattern is what makes the issue a Semi-Key in practice. The 140,000 mintage is moderate by branch-mint standards, but PCGS and NGC populations are heavily concentrated in Good through Very Fine, with Extremely Fine and About Uncirculated examples surfacing irregularly and Mint State coins genuinely scarce. The issue follows the Legend obverse format that opened in 1860, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA replacing the thirteen stars Gobrecht's original design carried before that change, and the dime continued without the IN GOD WE TRUST motto that arrived on larger silver denominations in 1866, because the planchet was too small to accept the ribbon banner. Authentication rests on the 2.49-gram weight under the Coinage Act of February 21, 1853, a 17.9-millimeter reeded planchet, and the S mintmark within the wreath on the reverse below the bow. Added-mintmark fakes built from Philadelphia 1867 base coins are an unusual counterfeit vector for the year because the parent mint's 6,625-piece run leaves little donor supply; altered-date work on more common branch-mint dimes is the more practical alteration risk, defeated by date-position photography and weight-tolerance checks.

The 1867-S trades as a Semi-Key at moderate certified pricing in circulated grades, with the steep price ladder kicking in above Extremely Fine. Most collectors buy the issue certified rather than raw, since the population is broad enough at lower grades to support eye-appeal selection without paying a condition premium. For the broader story of Gobrecht's design, the Civil War-era production, and the Carson City Mint, see the Seated Liberty Dime series history.