2010-D Millard Fillmore

Denver struck 36,960,000 Millard Fillmore dollars in 2010, the second design of the year and the thirteenth in the Presidential series. Fillmore released February 18, 2010 as the lead-off issue of the year, ahead of Pierce, Buchanan, and Lincoln. The Denver figure ran roughly six million coins below the 2009-D Taylor that closed the prior year and well under half the 2008-D Van Buren mintage from two years before, the steep cut a direct response to Federal Reserve banks sitting on unreleased pallets of Washington-through-Taylor dollars in vault inventory. Phebe Hemphill sculpted the obverse portrait of the thirteenth president, who finished Zachary Taylor's term after Taylor died July 9, 1850 and signed the Compromise of 1850 within months of taking office. Don Everhart's Statue of Liberty reverse, used on every circulating Presidential Dollar through 2016, completes the coin.

The 2010-D Fillmore strikes generally well, with most central-obverse softness limited to Fillmore's high collar and the hair above his ear, the first areas to lose definition as obverse dies wear through a press run. Reverse strike weakness on the torch flame and Liberty's gown folds tracks the rest of the 2010 production. The "D" mintmark is incused on the edge along with the date and the mottoes, applied in a third strike after the faces, so an authenticator looks for missing-edge-lettering errors where a planchet bypassed the edge press entirely. Plain-edge 2010 Fillmore dollars are far scarcer than the 2007 Washington errors that triggered the original "Godless dollar" coverage but still occasionally surface and command meaningful premiums when authenticated by PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, or NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company.

The 2010-D Fillmore is a common date in any circulated grade and inexpensive through Mint State 66. Condition rarity sits at MS67 and above, where the manganese-brass alloy's tendency to pick up bag marks and faint hairlines thins certified populations sharply. Most date-and-mint collectors satisfy the Fillmore slot through original Mint-wrapped rolls, the 2010 Annual Uncirculated Coin Set, or the four-coin 2010 Presidential Dollar set rather than slabbed singles. For broader background see the Presidential Dollar series history.