1885-S Seated Liberty Dime (1837-1891)

Intriguing History

By 1885, the Gilded Age was picking up speed: the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 forced the Treasury to buy huge quantities of silver and coin it into dollars whether commerce actually needed them or not, while railroads, heavy industry, and a wave of immigration reshaped the economy under Presidents Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur. This Seated Liberty dime, Christian Gobrecht's design that anchored small silver coinage for over half a century, was struck during exactly this period. This one came from the San Francisco Mint, opened in 1854 to coin the flood of West Coast bullion.