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How to Grade Seated Liberty Dimes

The U.S. Mint produced the dime known as the "Liberty Seated" from 1837 to 1891. This design featured Lady Liberty in a sitting position and holding a flag on the obverse, and a laurel wreath surrounding the words "ONE DIME" on the reverse. The coin, designed by Christian Gobrecht, is composed of 90-percent silver and 10-percent copper. Grades for this coin vary depending on the condition of some of its features.

Things You'll Need

Magnifying glass

Instructions

- 1
  Examine the coin for contact marks or other blemishes. If the features are in great shape and the coin has very few blemishes, it can grade as "choice uncirculated" (MS-63). With no wear and a fair number of blemishes the dime can be considered "uncirculated" (MS-60).
- 2
  Look at Lady Liberty's shoulder and hair. If there's some wear, downgrade the coin to "about uncirculated" (AU-50).
- 3
  Check the shield in front of Lady Liberty. If all of the letters in "LIBERTY" are clearly visible and the edges of the scroll are distinct but the shield has some wear, grade the dime as "extremely fine" (EF-40).
- 4
  Grade the coin as "very fine" (VF-20) if the scroll edges around the word "LIBERTY" aren't distinct.
- 5
  Choose "fine" (F-12) as the grade if there are weak spots in the letters of "LIBERTY."
- 6
  Give the dime a grade of "good" (G-4) if you can make out the letters in "LIBERTY" and can read the date, but the coin is quite worn otherwise.

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