Capped Bust Dime Varieties

The two major ones deal with the size of the 1821 date on the coin.

Capped bust dime varieties.

In the large 10c version. 4 of them deal with different sizes of the 10 c on the reverse of the coin. One variety had a larger date with larger numbers while one had a smaller date with small numbers. The characters are roughly the same on both coins with the exception of the 0.

John reich s capped bust design first seen on the half dollar of 1807 was extended to the dime in 1809. Issues up to 1820 were sporadic with coins struck only in 1809 1811 and 1814. This modified design would be struck for ten years until replaced by the seated liberty design by christian gobrecht which would be seen on this denomination for most of the remaining years of the 19 th century. There were a few major varieties of the 1830 capped bust silver dime.

The major variety set adds six coins to the classic set although none of the varieties are extremely rare. The first two varieties deal with the size of the words 10 c on the reverse of the coin. There are 5 major varieties of the 1829 capped bust dime. There were a few major varieties of the 1821 capped bust dime.

As a result the capped bust dimes of the second variety are more standardized usually of higher quality and were struck in larger quantities. The 0 lines up vertically with the 1 and both have roughly the same size. An exceptional first year 1829 strike from the lm 13 1 die pairing. The small 10 c variety has nearly the same size letters and numbers as the medium 10 c but the 0 is smaller and will not line up with the top of the 1 like it does in the medium version.

Beginning in 1820 issues became much more regular.