2010-S Franklin Pierce Proof

San Francisco delivered 2,224,613 Pierce proofs in 2010, the third design of the year and the fourteenth president honored under the Presidential $1 Coin Act. The coin reached collectors through the four-coin 2010 Presidential Dollar Proof Set and the larger 2010 United States Mint Proof Set; no proofs were sold individually. Production tracks the proof window opened with the 2007 Washington: deeply mirrored fields against frosted devices, struck twice on polished planchets at low tonnage, with the S mintmark and the mottoes incused on the edge in a separate third strike. Susan Gamble drew the obverse portrait, sculpted into the working proof dies by Charles Vickers, and Don Everhart's Statue of Liberty reverse closes the design as on the same year's business-strike issues.

What collectors actually look for on 2010-S Pierce proofs is the depth of the cameo contrast between mirror and frost. PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company, distinguish three tiers: standard Proof, Cameo, and Deep Cameo (DCAM at PCGS, Ultra Cameo at NGC), with frosted devices set against fully reflective fields earning the top designation. The vast majority of 2010 Presidential proofs grade at the Deep Cameo level because the Mint refreshed die frosting on a much shorter rotation than 1970s-era proofs, so for this issue collectors should chase grade rather than designation: the population thins sharply at Proof 70 Deep Cameo, and the spread between PR69 and PR70 is wider than the gap between any pair of grades below it.

For the type collector, the 2010-S Pierce proof is a common, inexpensive coin in any cameo tier through PR69 Deep Cameo. The 2.22 million proof mintage is roughly average for the 2007-2011 Presidential proof window, well below the 2007 launch-year totals but ahead of several later collector-only years. Most buyers fill the slot from intact original Mint sets rather than singles, where the proof keeps its mate to the business-strike Pierce. For broader background on the proof program, see the Presidential Dollar series history.