2010-D Franklin Pierce

Denver delivered 38,360,000 Pierce dollars in 2010, the third design of the year and the fourteenth in the Presidential series, released August 19, 2010 between Millard Fillmore and James Buchanan. The figure is the highest of the four 2010 Denver issues by a narrow margin over Buchanan, but the entire 2010 production year sits well below 2008 and 2009 levels because Federal Reserve vaults were overflowing with unreleased Presidential Dollars from earlier issues. The Mint cut 2010 orders accordingly. Susan Gamble drew the obverse portrait of the fourteenth president, sculpted into the working dies by Charles Vickers, and paired it with Don Everhart's Statue of Liberty reverse common to the 2007-2016 business-strike run.

Strike characteristics on 2010-D Pierce dollars track the rest of the late-pre-NIFC business run: clean across the central obverse and reverse, with the first softening visible on Pierce's hair and on the torch flame and Liberty's gown folds. Watch for missing-edge-lettering errors, where a planchet bypassed the third strike entirely and left the edge plain; these are far less common on 2010 dates than on the 2007 Washington that triggered the original "Godless dollar" media coverage but still authentic when slabbed by PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, or NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company. Doubled edge lettering, where the edge press struck twice, is catalogued as a minor curiosity rather than a premium variety.

For the date-and-mintmark collector, the 2010-D Pierce is a common coin in any circulated grade and inexpensive through Mint State 66. The condition rarity sits at MS67 and above, where strike sharpness on Pierce's high relief and clean fields around the portrait thin the population sharply against the manganese-brass surfaces' tendency to bag. Most buyers acquire this issue through original Mint-wrapped rolls or the 2010 two-coin Pierce set, and 2010 stands out as one of the last years before the December 2011 cutover to collector-only NIFC distribution made fresh roll-hunted Mint State examples scarce. For broader background see the Presidential Dollar series history.