“We have English denominations most absurdly and diversely applied to all Spanish coins; while our own lawfully established dime and mille remain, to the great mass of the people, among the hidden mysteries of political economy – state secrets.” — John Quincy Adams, Report of the Secretary of State on Weights and Measures, 1821 A frosty gem of graceful beauty, this dime is ringed with strong cartwheel luster and dappled with lovely toning on both sides. The obverse appears mostly pewter gray, with areas of silver gray in the left obverse field and around the stars. Direct light finds highlights of slate blue, violet rose, and rich gold, shades that blend melodiously on the more even reverse. The strike is impressively sharp on both sides, educing full detail from centers and peripheries. Some little specks are seen on the obverse, mostly around star 5 and near Liberty’s forecurl. On both obverse and reverse, the surfaces are fresh and free of any significant evidence of handling. A single crisp die clash is visible on the reverse, where an impression of Liberty’s bustline is seen near PLURIBUS, and her profile is present below the wing at left. The die clash is less notable on the obverse, though a vestige of the eagle’s wing is seen in front of Liberty’s throat. The year 1821 saw the publication of John Quincy Adams’ little known Report of the Secretary of State Upon Weights and Measures. The document was first publicized to a modern numismatic audience in the pages of The Asylum by Joel J. Orosz in 2012. Following Thomas Jefferson’s similarly titled report, published in 1790, Adams attempted to make sensible recommendations to help standardize and render more efficient the disorganized mix of standards then prevailing throughout the United States. Jefferson had recommended, with the support of historical precedent, that the nation’s coinage fit into an overarching standard that included weight and other measurements. Adams agreed, but found issues with the implementation of the decimal system of coinage. “At the close of our war for independence, we found ourselves with four English words, pound, shilling, penny and farthing, to signify all our moneys of account,” Adams explained, pointing out that these English words had been mapped upon concepts unique to each American colony that had nothing to do with their English antecedents. Those terms persisted even as “We took the Spanish piece of eight, which had always been the coin most current among us, and to which we had given a name of our own – a dollar.” The familiarity of the Spanish milled dollar made the American dollar easy to translate, and cents had “become tolerably familiarized,” but not so for the dime, which Adams said had “been seldom ... presented in their material images to the people” and “have remain[ed] so utterly unknown, that now, when the recent coinage of dimes is alluded to in our public journals, if their name is mentioned, it is always with an explanatory definition to inform the reader, that they are ten cent pieces.” Adams also complained about the habit of dimes to be accepted, particularly “over the mountains,” as 12-1/2 cents due to the local citizens’ total unfamiliarity with the heretofore scarce denomination. Perhaps because of the concerted push to make the dime more common in circulation, choice and gem Mint State examples from this era are uniformly elusive. PCGS has certified an 1821 Small Date dime finer than MS-63 on just five occasions in nearly 30 years. This coin likely ranks as the single finest extant specimen of the JR-9 die variety, one of three die marriages to use a Small Date obverse, and stands alone as the finest 1821 Small Date dime seen by PCGS. PCGS# 94496. NGC ID: 236Y.
