1882

Philadelphia struck just 3,911 dimes in 1882, the lowest business-strike Seated dime mintage of any year outside the 1873-CC No Arrows apex rarity and the closing year of the 1879-to-1882 Philadelphia low-mintage stretch. The coin is a Legend, No Arrows issue under the 2.50-gram weight standard set by the Coinage Act of February 12, 1873. The 3,911-piece figure is genuinely tiny by Mint Bureau standards, smaller than most contemporary proof deliveries, and reflects a year in which the Mint produced effectively no dimes for circulation, only a token allocation for collector and bank-vault demand while the Bland-Allison Act of February 28, 1878 silver-dollar program continued to absorb mint silver capacity. The classification on the site reads Regular rather than Semi-Key, which sits at the borderline given the mintage; the issue's relative availability in Mint State, driven by deliberate collector saving from the outset, is the primary reason it has not crossed onto the formal Key Date roster despite the very low original delivery.

Survival follows the now-familiar collector-saved profile of the 1879-to-1882 stretch, and at an extreme: virtually every surviving 1882 is documented in the certified population, with PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company, reports showing Mint State examples meaningfully outnumbering circulated pieces across the grade ladder. Gem MS-65 and MS-66 coins are available for the date, and even MS-67 examples surface at major sales without breaking records. Circulated examples in Very Fine and Extremely Fine are paradoxically scarcer than choice Mint State pieces, the same inversion that characterizes 1879 through 1881, only more pronounced. Strike quality on the issue runs sharp on most survivors, since the small delivery was struck on freshly-prepared dies under careful supervision. Authentication starts at the 2.50-gram weight on a 90-percent-silver planchet, the 17.9-millimeter reeded edge, date numeral verification against documented references, and direct comparison of certification labels; the issue is significant enough that essentially all serious buying happens through PCGS or NGC slabs.

For collectors, the 1882 is the headline date of the late-Philadelphia low-mintage stretch and the genuine condition-rarity-friendly entry into the cluster. A certified Mint State example is the standard acquisition target, with circulated pieces representing an entirely separate and harder hunt. Buying recommendations strongly favor certified material at every grade. For the broader story of Gobrecht's design and the series' late production, see the Seated Liberty Dime series history.