1875-S Mintmark Below Bow

The 1875-S Mintmark Below Bow is one of two reverse die placements San Francisco used for the year's dime output, with the combined 1875-S delivery reaching 9,070,000 pieces split between the Below Bow and Above Bow positions. The Below Bow placement seats the small S mintmark inside the wreath but tucked under the ribbon bow, the position that became standard usage at San Francisco from 1876 onward. This coin is a Legend, No Arrows issue under the 2.50-gram weight standard set by the Coinage Act of February 12, 1873, struck during the year when silver-coin shortages eased and western branch production surged to meet a backlog of commercial demand. The 9.07 million combined S-mint figure ranks among the largest Seated dime deliveries from any branch through the entire series.

Strike quality on San Francisco dimes from this year runs generally cleaner than the Carson City output, with full shield rivets and respectable wreath leaves on most examples. Where softness appears, it lands on the central head detail and the lower obverse stars, both typical late-die-state symptoms when working dies ran long. Most survivors fall in Very Good through Extremely Fine, where the coin did its commercial work through the late 1870s and the Barber-dime decades that followed. About Uncirculated examples are reasonably available, and Mint State pieces exist in workable numbers without becoming common above MS-63. Authentication centers on the 2.50-gram weight, the 17.9-millimeter reeded edge, and confirmation that the S mintmark sits genuinely below the bow rather than above it, since the two placements carry separate variety status and command different premiums in higher grades. PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company, both attribute the Below Bow placement as a distinct die variety, and direct comparison against documented mintmark photographs remains the standard verification step on slabbed material.

For collectors, the 1875-S Below Bow is a comfortable date-and-mintmark variety pickup at every circulated grade level, with the Above Bow companion typically the harder of the two placements to source in choice condition. Circulated examples through Extremely Fine surface at modest premiums over generic Seated dime type pricing, and About Uncirculated pieces remain reachable without heavy budget. For the broader story of Gobrecht's design and the series' late production, see the Seated Liberty Dime series history.