USA Coin Book
Half Dime · $0.05
1853-P Seated Liberty Half Dime (1837-1873)
FS-401
Key Features
Dot below 5 (misc. obverse)
Intriguing History
By 1853, the California Gold Rush was flooding the country with bullion, prompting new gold denominations and, in 1854, a brand-new branch mint in San Francisco, even as the Compromise of 1850 papered over the deepening sectional dispute over slavery in the new territories. This Seated Liberty half dime, the smallest U.S. silver coin ever regularly struck, was doing its small-change work in exactly this period.