Draped Bust Dimes (1796–1807)

The First Dime

The dime did not exist until 1796. Although the Coinage Act of 1792 had authorized a ten-cent piece as part of the decimal monetary system, and although the Mint had been producing copper cents and half cents since 1793 and silver half dollars, dollars, and half dimes since 1794 and 1795, no dimes were struck until four years after the denomination was legally created. The Mint's pressing priorities lay with the larger silver coins and the coppers, and the same production problems that had intermittently disrupted other denominations held the dime back as well. When dimes did appear in 1796, they carried the same Draped Bust obverse that the Mint had just introduced across the silver series, and the same Small Eagle reverse that appeared on the other silver coins of that moment.¹

The obverse design, executed by Chief Engraver Robert Scot from a drawing attributed to portraitist Gilbert Stuart, depicts Liberty facing right with hair tied loosely at the back with a ribbon, her shoulders and neckline draped with rippled cloth. LIBERTY appears above and the date below. The portrait is traditionally said to have been drawn from or inspired by Philadelphia socialite Ann Willing Bingham, wife of Pennsylvania senator William Bingham and one of the most celebrated women of the era. Recent scholarship has questioned the extent of Stuart's direct involvement with the coin dies, with Scot and assistant John Eckstein possibly bearing more of the execution than convention has credited. Whether Stuart drew the portrait, and whether Bingham sat for it, remains unsettled.²

No denomination appeared on the dime, nor would one until the Capped Bust design arrived in 1809. Citizens identified its value by size, weight, and composition, in the standard convention of the era. The coin measured 19 millimeters in diameter and weighed 2.70 grams (41.6 grains) in an alloy of 89.24 percent silver and 10.76 percent copper.

Type 1: The Small Eagle Reverse (1796–1797)

The Small Eagle reverse on the first dimes showed a modest bird perched on a cloud within an open wreath, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA arcing around the perimeter. It is the same motif that appeared on the Draped Bust half dime, half dollar, and dollar of the same years, consistent with the Mint's policy that all silver denominations share a common design. Apparently in response to criticism, Robert Scot replaced the small eagle in 1798 with a heraldic eagle derived from the Great Seal.

The Mint delivered 22,135 dimes in 1796, and some of the dimes it delivered early in 1797 may have been struck from 1796-dated dies. The 1796 dime carries fifteen stars on the obverse, one for each state then in the Union. The 1797 Small Eagle dime comes from the 25,261 pieces delivered that year and presents a two-variety star-count situation: early 1797 dimes carry 16 stars, reflecting Tennessee's admission in June 1796 before the Mint's policy changed; later 1797 dimes carry 13 stars after Mint Director Elias Boudinot decreed that all coins would return to the original thirteen. The 1797 dime exists in only these two varieties: 16-star (JR-1) and 13-star (JR-2). Both 1796 and 1797 dimes in any condition represent genuinely scarce early American silver, with populations measured in hundreds across the combined dates.³

The Star Count Policy and the 1798 Standardization

The star-field problem had been building since Vermont (1791) and Kentucky (1792) pushed the total above the original thirteen, and Tennessee's admission in 1796 added a sixteenth. Each new state had received a star on the coinage; continuing indefinitely was plainly unsustainable. Mint Director Boudinot resolved the question by decree: henceforth all coins would carry the original thirteen stars. The 1797 dimes show this transition in process, with 16-star examples struck before the policy change and 13-star examples struck after. The 1798 Heraldic Eagle dimes standardized at thirteen obverse stars, seven left and six right, and that count held through the series' end in 1807.⁴

Type 2: The Heraldic Eagle Reverse (1798–1807)

The Heraldic Eagle reverse introduced in 1798 brought the full iconographic program of the Great Seal to the dime. At center stands an eagle with wings outstretched, the Union Shield on its breast, E PLURIBUS UNUM on a ribbon in its beak, a bundle of arrows and an olive branch in its talons. Above arcs a cloud bank beneath which a group of stars is arranged. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA surrounds the full perimeter. Scot adapted the design from the version he had applied to the gold quarter eagle in 1796, and the silver dollar took the same reverse in 1798; the fundamental heraldic motif was consistent across denominations, though specific die work and star counts varied by year and coin.

Dimes were not produced bearing the dates 1799 or 1806, two gap years in an otherwise continuous run. The combined total mintage of the Heraldic Eagle type across its production years was approximately 422,010 pieces, and the whole Draped Bust dime series, both types together, came to 469,406.⁵

The 1798/7 Overdate and the Shared Reverse Dies

The 1798 Heraldic Eagle dimes appear with either 16 stars or 13 stars above the eagle on the reverse. The explanation is different from the obverse star-count problem: the Mint found that the gold quarter eagle and the dime were close enough in diameter that reverse dies could be used interchangeably between the two denominations. In the interest of economizing on die preparation, 16-star reverse dies made for the quarter eagle were used to strike dimes. This die-sharing practice between two denominations of different nominal value is believed to be unique in regular American coinage. The 1798/7 overdate, in which a 7 from a previous year's die is visible beneath the 8 in the date, exists in both the 13-star and 16-star reverse varieties, and the 13-star reverse is much the rarer of the two.⁶

The 1802 Dime: A Quiet Rarity

The 1802 dime had a mintage of approximately 10,975 pieces, the second-lowest in the Heraldic Eagle type after the 1804 (8,265 pieces) and among the lowest regular-issue mintages in the denomination's history. Unlike the corresponding 1802 half dime, whose rarity has been celebrated in numismatic literature since the nineteenth century, the 1802 dime attracts less attention in general collector literature, partly because most buyers approaching this type do so for a type set rather than a date set, and a common 1807 serves that purpose as readily as a scarce 1802. For the date specialist, however, the 1802 dime is a genuine rarity in any grade above Fine, and Mint State pieces are great rarities: a JR-4 graded MS-62 by PCGS brought $69,000 at Stack's Bowers in August 2024.⁷

The 1800, 1801, and 1803 dates are similarly rare in high grades, though their individual situations differ. The 1803 is particularly scarce at the top: when Heritage offered the JR-3 later sold in the Pogue collection, now graded MS-64 by PCGS, in 2008, its cataloguer called it the finest existing 1803 dime of any variety. The 1804 dimes are encountered with somewhat more frequency in circulated grades, though uncirculated 1804 dimes appear essentially never in the auction record.

The 1804 Fourteen-Star Reverse

About one in five surviving 1804 dimes carries a reverse with fourteen stars above the eagle rather than the standard thirteen or the sixteen found on earlier issues; PCGS CoinFacts estimates about 20 survivors of the 14-star reverse against about 75 of the 13-star. The extra star comes from die sharing: the specific fourteen-star reverse die was the identical die used to strike 1804 quarter eagles with fourteen-star reverses. The use of a single die to produce regular coinage of two different denominations, a ten-cent piece and a two-and-a-half-dollar gold coin, is, as Bowers noted, believed to be unique in the regular American series. Both the 13-star and 14-star 1804 dimes are collected, and the scarcer 14-star reverse carries a large premium over the 13-star in every circulated grade.⁸

Strike Quality and the Collecting Reality

The Draped Bust dime series was never reliably well struck, and neither type is known for sharp design definition at center. Liberty's hair above and at the ear, the stars, and the eagle's breast and wing feathers are the areas most prone to weakness. Many if not most examples of any date show some degree of striking softness in these locations, and this is a normal characteristic of the series rather than a defect to be penalized in grading. Adjustment marks are common on the early dates as they are on all early American silver. Most dates in the Heraldic Eagle type are found predominantly in grades from About Good through Very Fine, with Extremely Fine pieces scarce and About Uncirculated coins rare. For the 1800 through 1803 dates, Mint State pieces exist but are great rarities, and the 1804 is all but unknown in Mint State.

The 1805 and 1807 dates, which together account for more than 65 percent of the type's total mintage, are the dates most frequently seen in any grade including higher circulated. Gem Draped Bust dimes (Mint State 65 or finer) of any date are very rare, and the few that exist are among the most carefully studied early American coins.

Building the Set

Two coins complete the type set: one Small Eagle reverse (either 1796 or 1797, with the 1796 easier to find in higher grades) and one Heraldic Eagle reverse (most readily from 1805 or 1807, the highest-mintage dates). Both are available through specialist dealers and major auction houses, though even common-date examples in lower circulated grades carry prices that reflect genuine historical rarity and strong collector demand. Above About Good, every date in the series needs a planned budget.

A complete date set, one coin per struck year covering 1796, 1797, 1798, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1807, is achievable for a patient collector, with the 1804 presenting the most significant financial challenge. Authentication is essential for all Draped Bust dimes. The series has been counterfeited and altered throughout its collecting history, and the absence of denomination markings makes it superficially easier to pass an altered coin of a different denomination as a dime. PCGS and NGC certification is strongly recommended for any example purchased above a modest price. The standard specialist reference is Davis, Logan, Lovejoy, McCloskey, and Subjack's Early United States Dimes 1796–1837, which provides comprehensive die variety cataloguing for the series.