“Silver, being substantially the only standard measure of property, is the basis on which the credit of bank paper is founded; and when any portion of the small notes is withdrawn or expelled, silver, being best adapted for small coins, takes their place.” — Secretary of the Treasury Samuel D. Ingham, May 4, 1830 A nearly flawless gem, this coin proves that overwhelming luster can be both satiny and reflective. The obverse is barely toned in pale champagne, while the reverse shows somewhat deeper gold framed by pastel violet and blue. Aside from the upper extremity of the eagle’s head, all details are crisp and fully realized. No marks are found on the pristine surfaces, save for a single tiny speck above Liberty’s neck curl and a single contact point behind the eagle’s head beneath the first U of UNUM. The dies show a scattering of fine cracks, including a horizontal crack from star 7 across the top of Liberty’s cap, one from the rim through the left side of the first S in STATES to the ribbon below, another from the C of the denomination across the talon at right which may already be joined to the light crack extending up from the back of the eagle’s neck, and a crack from below the lowest olive leaf to the bottom of the wing at left. Further very delicate cracks are seen connecting the wingtip at left to the olive leaf below, from F of OF to the ribbon below, and joining the tops of NITE. Frosty areas under the eagle’s wings and below Liberty’s profile remain from efforts to remove clash marks, slight vestiges of which remain at the underside of the wings. When this dime was struck, the relationship of silver and gold coins was becoming a significant political football. Gold coins had stopped circulating in the early 1820s, leaving only silver coins in common circulation. The value ratio of 15:1, enshrined in the Mint Act of 1792, had become imbalanced since that time by what Treasury Secretary Samuel D. Ingham called “the vibrations of the values of gold and silver” in the global economy. The detailed study on the subject that Ingham delivered to Congress in May 1830 suggested a more moderate path than either his bank-loathing boss, Andrew Jackson, or the gold bugs in Congress could abide. Earlier in 1830, Senator Nathan Sanford had offered a bill to make subsidiary silver coins, all those valued at less than a dollar, legal tender in amounts only up to $10, in the hopes that such legislation could encourage gold to circulate again. The bill failed, just as its hoped-for results would have. Legislation passed in 1834 to alter the ratio of gold and silver to 16:1 did its job, and gold and silver circulated side by side thereafter. Before the passage of the Coinage Act of 1834, silver coins bore the entire responsibility for circulating specie. This coin never did its job. Approaching technical perfection, this specimen never saw a day of circulation. It has stood atop the PCGS Population Report as MS-67 since at least 2005, the only 1830 Small 10C dime to ever be graded higher than MS-65 by PCGS. With one entry graded in MS-63, one in MS-64, and one in MS-65 (and this MS-67), there are just four examples certified above MS-62. The Small 10C category is made up of only this single die variety, leaving little doubt that this is the finest example known from this die pair. PCGS# 4516. NGC ID: 2379.
