1868-S

San Francisco struck 260,000 dimes in 1868, a moderate branch-mint figure that placed Pacific Coast production well below the parent mint's 464,600 piece run for the same year, a reversal of the proportions that had governed the wartime years when San Francisco regularly outproduced Philadelphia on Seated dimes. The recovery of eastern minting under the still-unfinished Reconstruction economy is part of the story, but the simpler driver was operational. San Francisco's silver press time was rationed against the gold coinage that paid the bills, the Comstock had not yet hit the bonanza years that would peak with the 1873 Big Bonanza strike, and the branch's dime output settled into a working level that reflected actual Pacific Coast commercial demand rather than a Civil War surge.

Strike on the 1868-S follows the established branch-mint pattern, with recurring softness on Liberty's head and the upper-obverse legend on later die states while the central wreath reverse usually comes up reasonably full. The Legend obverse format introduced in 1860 carries through unchanged, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA replacing the thirteen stars Gobrecht's original design had carried since the late 1830s, and the dime continued without an IN GOD WE TRUST motto because the planchet was too small to accept the ribbon banner that arrived on the larger silver denominations in 1866. Authentication rests on the Coinage Act of February 21, 1853 standards of 2.49 grams and 17.9 millimeters with a reeded edge, and on the S mintmark within the wreath on the reverse below the bow; the field around the mintmark should sit clean of tooling halos and the punch itself should match documented San Francisco mintmark styles for the year. Survival is broad through low circulated grades and thins above Extremely Fine.

The 1868-S is a regular-issue branch-mint date that collectors typically acquire for date-set or date-and-mintmark completion at modest certified pricing in circulated grades, with the price ladder rising more steeply only at Mint State levels. Raw examples carry the usual S-mint authentication caveats, which is why most pieces in the market trade in PCGS or NGC plastic. 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.