A wholesome example of this important early American type. Fully original surfaces are toned in dominant reddish-copper patina with a few streaks and swirls of olive-russet scattered about. Most design elements are boldly outlined and readily evident, although the right obverse and left reverse peripheries are soft to indistinct due to some edge disturbances in those areas. Accuracy also compels us to mention a couple of edge bumps at the lower reverse and scattered field marks that are more prevalent on the reverse. Most areas present as generally smooth in hand, however, and with a near-fully appreciable design there is much to recommend this coin for inclusion in an advanced cabinet of numismatic rarities.No more than 20 examples of this type are thought to exist, with survivors generally ranging in grade from VF to AU, but with at least one heavily circulated example known -- the coin offered in our (Bowers and Ruddys) sale of the River Oaks Collection in November of 1976. At least two examples are impounded in major public collections: the Mint Cabinet specimen is at the Smithsonian Institution and the Byron Reed specimen is at the Durham Museum in Omaha, formerly at the Omaha City Library. Other notable specimens of Judd-10 were in the Garrett Collection (ex J.W. Ellsworth) and the Virgil Brand Collection.The usage DISME can be traced back to the pioneer work in decimal mathematics of Dutch mathematician-engineer Simon Stevin (Latin, Stevinus) of Bruges (1548-1620) in his book <em>De Thiende, the Tenth</em>, translated into French as <em>Disme</em>. The "Tenth" was, after all, the basis of decimalization, although American usage quickly simplified the spelling to dime.Andrew W. Pollock III in his book <em>U.S. Patterns and Related Issues</em> provides the following commentary:<em>"The obverse design clearly appears to have been inspired by Augustin Dupres Libertas Americana medal, but what is more remarkable is that the Liberty head on the dismes appears to be almost identical to that on the 1793 half cents, except that the hair is arranged in a somewhat different manner.</em><em>"The obverse has been attributed by Walter Breen to Adam Eckfeldt on the basis of an old numismatic tradition published in W.E. Woodwards sale of the Jeremiah Colburn Collection that Eckfeldt has presented one of the startlingly similar 1793 half cents to a gentleman as a sample of his work....</em><em>"There is no documentary evidence available to indicate when in 1792 the dismes were coined. It has been suggested that the dismes may have been minted at about the same time as the half dismes. This is based partly on the stylistic similarity between the reverses of the two denominations. Both reverses feature flying eagles, and the layout of the lettering is similar. We note also, that Miss Liberty is facing to the left on both denominations, whereas she is facing to the right on all of the other 1792-dated patterns....</em><em>"Significantly, the dismes are very nearly the same in diameter as the 1792 small cents, and it seems probable that the same planchet cutter was used to prepare the flans for both denominations."</em>An excellent (and far rarer) companion piece to the 1792 half disme offered above, this is a significant offering for the astute numismatist -- a coin that traces its origins to the founding of the United States Mint and our nations monetary system.,,PCGS# 11026. NGC ID: 294H.,,
