10 Cents "Liberty Cap Dime" · “Liberty Cap Dime”

The Capped Bust Dime: Liberty in a Cap, 1809–1837

In 1807 the U.S. Mint handed its entire silver coinage to a German immigrant who had arrived as an indentured servant. His Liberty — chin up, hair loose, a soft cap pinned with a ribbon reading LIBERTY — reached the dime in 1809 and stayed there for almost thirty years. A few of those dates are now among the hardest coins in American numismatics to find.