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Half Dime · $0.05
1872-S Seated Liberty Half Dime (1837-1873)
FS-301
Key Features
Mintmark below bow, Misplaced Date
Intriguing History
In 1872, the country was working through Reconstruction's turbulent politics under Presidents Johnson and Grant, an era of both promise and corruption, culminating in the nation's 1876 Centennial celebrations even as an economic panic in 1873 and a controversial demonetization of silver dollars roiled the currency debate. This Seated Liberty half dime, the smallest U.S. silver coin ever regularly struck, was doing its small-change work in exactly this period. This one came from the San Francisco Mint, opened in 1854 to coin the flood of West Coast bullion.