By Michele Orzano
COIN WORLD Staff

It was the longest running design for any U.S. silver coin – the Seated Liberty obverse. It was used on the half dime, dime, 20-cent coin, quarter dollar, half dollar and dollar as well as some dollar patterns.

When it was used for the dime denomination, the design was tinkered with several times during its 55-year run. At any given time, the obverse design has featured stars and no stars; with drapery at the elbow and without drapery; with arrows at the date and without arrows; with legend, without legend.

Even the reverse wasn't exempt from change. From 1837 to 1860 it featured a berry-bedecked wreath. Then it was changed to display a "cereal" wreath made up of corn, wheat, maple and oak leaves.

Many designers participated in the series. The design used on the obverse from 1837 to 1840 was the work of Thomas Sully and Christian Gobrecht (Gobrecht also designed the berry-wreath reverse with legend).

The concept for the design began when U.S. Mint Director Robert Maskell Patterson decided it was time to move away from John Reich's Capped Bust designs. Patterson liked the strength conveyed in the seated Britannia that was used on British coinage. He commissioned noted painters Sully and Titian Peale to submit designs favoring a Seated Liberty concept.

The new design apparently pleased Patterson and he assigned Gobrecht the task of engraving it. Gobrecht had been serving as a draughtsman and diesinker at the Mint, and assistant to then Engraver William Kneass since 1836. When Kneass died in 1840, Gobrecht succeeded him.

The obverse design depicts an allegorical figure of Liberty seated on a rock with her head looking back over her right shoulder. Her left hand holds a pole with Liberty cap on the upper end, while her right hand supports a shield resting against the rock. The word LIBERTY appears on a ribbon held in place across the shield by Liberty's right hand. The date appears below the figure.

The first reverse design shows an open-ended wreath of two branches connected at the bottom with a ribbon tied into a bow, with the denomination ONE DIME, rather than a numerical designation, within in the wreath.

Changes to the Gobrecht-Sully obverse were instituted by John Hughes in 1840. Hughes added drapery between Liberty's left arm and left thigh as well as more cloth over her bustline. He also fattened her arms, reduced her bust and the size of the rock she sits on, and straightened the shield to its full and upright position. In addition, arrows were added on either side of the date on coins dated 1853 through 1855.

In 1860, James B. Longacre removed the stars from the Hughes-Gobrecht-Sully design and moved the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA legend from the reverse to the obverse. He reintroduced arrows at the date from 1873 through 1875. Longacre is also credited with designing the cereal wreath used on the reverse. Longacre's reverse design remained in use until 1916 – even though the Barber dime obverse was introduced in 1892.

Despite the changes to design and even to fineness, the Seated Liberty dime remains popular with collectors.