USA Coin Book
Half Dime · $0.05
1865-S Seated Liberty Half Dime (1837-1873)
FS-301
Key Features
Repunched Date
Intriguing History
By 1865, the Civil War had upended the nation: hard money vanished from circulation as people hoarded gold and silver, the government issued paper greenbacks to fund the war effort, and the phrase "In God We Trust" was added to U.S. coinage in 1864 amid the conflict's darkest years. This Seated Liberty half dime, the smallest U.S. silver coin ever regularly struck, was doing its small-change work in exactly this period. This one came from the San Francisco Mint, opened in 1854 to coin the flood of West Coast bullion.