For decades coin dealers would not stock low grade Arrows half dimes because they were considered so common.
But Chief Engraver Longacre knew that the press of time would not allow any drastic redesigning or the hiring and training of outside artisans. Rather, Arrows half dimes and all silver coins were hoarded during the Civil War simply because the coins had silver in them in any amountthis was how great uncertainty was on the part of the general populace regarding the outcome of the War.
The issue of fiduciary coinage would be debated for the next century, but it was the Arrows coinage of 1853-55 that fired the opening shot in the controversy that was not fully resolved until all precious metal was finally removed from circulating coinage in 1970.U.S. Silver Melt: $1.64 Value: As a rough estimate of this coins value you can assume this coin in average condition will be valued at somewhere around $16, while one in certified mint state (MS+) condition could bring as much as $675 at auction. It lists for $285 in G-4, $6,450 in MS-60 and $27,500 in MS-65 and with good reason as it was a low mintage date from New Orleans.Coins from New Orleans are notoriously tough when it comes to Mint State. Officials agreed that the new, lower weight coins should have some distinctive design or mark that would enable the general populace to easily distinguish them from the earlier Gobrecht-Hughes designed Seated Liberty coinage that contained a greater amount of silver. New Orleans managed a production of just 160,000 half dimes when the order came that the silver content had finally been reduced by Congress. Buy & Sell This Coin.
Type: Liberty Seated Dime Year: 1853 Mint Mark: No mint mark Face Value: 0.10 USD Total Produced: 12,078,000 [ Silver Content: 90% Silver Weight: 0.0723 oz. Only Philadelphia and New Orleans produced the issue, and the New Orleans pieces are significantly scarcer than their Philadelphia counterparts. By the time of the Civil War, so little was made on the production of silver coins that it looked as if melting and exporting would resume if the silver price continued to climb. The Mint Act of 1853 achieved what Congress and the Mint set out to do; it reduced the amount of silver in the subsidiary coinage to a level where it was not profitable to melt, hoard or export these denominations, and small change circulated once again. Silver Melt: $1.63 Value: As a rough estimate of this coins value you can assume this coin in average condition will be valued at somewhere around $19, while one in certified mint state (MS+) condition could bring as much as $4,000 at auction. When John Marshall discovered a few nuggets of gold on the American River in northern California in 1848, no one could have predicted just how much precious metal lay waiting to be found and how widespread the effects of his discovery really would be. In fact, there are two 1853-O half dimes: ones with arrows at the date and one without the arrows and it is that latter which is potentially much better than its mintage totals suggest.The 1853-O half dime with arrows can be bought for only $20.75 in G-4.