1870 Half Dime Patterns

About This Coin

Representing the smallest silver denomination in Barber's Standard Silver Patterns program, the 1870 Half Dime Patterns tested how the proposed unified design system would function at the most diminutive silver coinage scale. The half dime's approximately 15 mm diameter presented the most extreme challenge — artistic elements readable on a 38 mm dollar had to work at less than half the size. The obverse features experimental designs from the proposed standard vocabulary. A notable result of $21,000 in PR67 at Heritage Auctions confirms strong collector interest. These patterns are particularly poignant because the denomination was living on borrowed time — the copper-nickel five-cent piece introduced in 1866 was already assuming the half dime's role, and the 1873 Coinage Act would formally abolish the denomination. Including the half dime in the program suggests Barber and Director Pollock still envisioned a future for the small silver five-cent piece. The patterns preserve evidence of a future that never materialized — a world where the silver half dime continued alongside the nickel.