2010-P Franklin Pierce

Philadelphia struck 38,220,000 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 tracks within a quarter million pieces of the Denver counterpart, both roughly half the 2008 production levels because Federal Reserve banks were sitting on tens of millions of unreleased Washington-through-Van Buren dollars by mid-2010 and ordering only what they could place. The cut was a leading indicator of the December 2011 decision to suspend release of new Presidential Dollars into general circulation. 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 every business-strike Presidential Dollar from 2007 through 2016.

Two cherry-pickable items recur on 2010-dated Pierce dollars at the variety-collector level. The first is missing-edge-lettering errors, where a finished planchet bypassed the third strike at the edge press and left the rim plain; these are far scarcer on 2010 dates than on the 2007 Washington that triggered the original "Godless dollar" press cycle but still authentic when slabbed. The second is weak strike on Pierce's hair behind the temple and across the cheekbone, which separates a Mint State 65 from a Mint State 66 more often than bag marks do. Authentication should run through PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, or NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company; plain-edge novelty pieces produced after-Mint do circulate.

For the date-and-mintmark collector, the 2010-P Pierce is a common coin in any circulated grade and inexpensive through Mint State 66. Population reports thin sharply at Mint State 67 and above in line with the rest of the Presidential series, where the manganese-brass alloy resists the contact-free surfaces registry collectors require. Most buyers fill the Pierce slot through original Mint-wrapped rolls rather than chasing slabbed singles. The 2010 issues remain among the last fully-circulated Presidential Dollars, which gives Pierce a small structural premium over the 2012-and-later collector-only issues despite the unremarkable mintage. For broader background see the Presidential Dollar series history.