1796 10c Draped Bust Dime Small Eagle JR-3 R-5 NGC MS63.
The Coinage Act of 1792 established the dime (spelled “disme” in the legislation), cent, and mill as subdivisions of the dollar equal to 1⁄10, 1⁄100 and 1⁄1000 dollar respectively.
The first known proposal for a decimal-based coinage system in the United States was made in 1783 by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and David Rittenhouse. Hamilton, the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury, recommended the issuance of six such coins in 1791, in a report to Congress. Among the six was a silver coin, “which shall be, in weight and value, one-tenth part of a silver unit or dollar“.
From 1796 to 1837, dimes were composed of 89.24% silver and 10.76% copper, the value of which required the coins to be physically very small to prevent their commodity value being worth more than face value. Thus dimes are made small and thin. The silver percentage was increased to 90.0% with the introduction of the Seated Liberty dime; the use of a richer alloy was offset by reducing the diameter from 18.8 millimeters (0.740 inch) to its current figure of 17.9 millimeters (0.705 inch).
This renowned dime is pedigreed to the Dr. George P. French, T. James Clarke, Lester Merkin, John Walter Whitney, and Eugene Gardner collections. We are aware of just one other coin struck from the terminal die state with a triangular cud over the first T in STATES. An XF40 example appeared in a Bowers and Merena June 1990 sale, lot 481. The present coin is lustrous with silver-gray and multicolor patina. The fields on both sides are semiprooflike beneath deep steel and iridescent toning. Slight weakness on the obverse border left of the date is clearly the result of the reverse rim break. All design details on both sides are more than adequately defined, with nearly full plumage on the eagle, flat only on a few breast feathers. Mint-made adjustment marks appear at the lower-right border and to a lesser extent elsewhere on the reverse. We know of only one 1796 JR-3 dime in comparable quality, from the Ed Price Collection. That coin shows a retained break above the first T in STATES. Census: 1 in 63, 0 finer (10/21).
Ex: Dr. George P. French; T. James Clarke (New Netherlands, 4/1956), lot 1621; Lester Merkin (Stack’s, 11/1994), lot 767; John Whitney Walter (Stack’s, 5/1999), lot 1767; Milwaukee ANA Signature (Heritage, 8/2007), lot 1614; David Lawrence (10/2007), lot 5336; Eugene H. Gardner II (Heritage, 10/2014), lot 98222; Long Beach Signature (Heritage, 6/2015), lot 3849; Chicago ANA (Stack’s Bowers, 8/2015), lot 10055; Rarities Sale (Stack’s Bowers), 10/2015, lot 21.
