1803 Draped Bust Dime
Circulation strike struck at the Philadelphia Mint · 33,040 made
- Mintage
- 33,040
- Metal
- 89.24% silver, 10.76% copper
- Weight
- 2.7 g
- Diameter
- 19 mm
Original illustration. Tap to flip. Not a photograph of the actual coin.
Face value · Metal value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is an 1803 Draped Bust Dime worth?
Few coins in the series are harder to find. Even a worn 1803 sells well above face value. The flip side is that counterfeits and altered dates are common, so authentication matters.
What would make yours worth more:
- Uncirculated condition with full original luster
- A die variety or minting error
- Certification by PCGS or NGC, which buyers expect for scarce dates
For market prices, check recent sold results for certified coins in the same grade.
Quick answers
- Is the 1803 Draped Bust Dime rare?
- Yes. Only 33,040 were made, 7th lowest of the 10 regular issues in the series.
- Is the 1803 Draped Bust Dime silver?
- Yes. It's 89.24% silver, 10.76% copper and holds 0.0775 troy ounces of pure silver.
- Where is the mint mark on an 1803 Draped Bust Dime?
- No mint mark. Every Draped Bust dime was struck in Philadelphia.
- Which Philadelphia dates near 1803 are scarcer?
- The 1804 at 8,265, the 1802 at 10,975, the 1800 at 21,760, plus 1 more. So the 1803 is one of the easier dates of its stretch.
- How many 1803 Draped Bust Dime coins were made?
- 33,040.
What to check on your 1803
- There's no mint mark on this one, so the date and condition are what matter.
- Check the date and mint mark under magnification for tooling or added letters. Scarce dates are the ones forgers alter.
- Don't clean it. Cleaning leaves fine scratches and an unnatural shine that collectors avoid.
- Old coins pick up damage over a long life. Look for holes, bends, scratches or signs of cleaning before you judge the grade, because a damaged coin sells for a fraction of a problem-free one.
- Judge the grade under good light. Look at the hair above Liberty's forehead and the folds of drapery at her shoulder. On the reverse check the eagle's breast and wing tips.
Never clean it. Collectors pay strong premiums for original surfaces and natural toning on a date like this. A cleaned coin can lose half its value or more. Low-mintage dates attract altered and counterfeit coins. Check that the date have not been tooled or added, or buy one already certified by PCGS or NGC.
The story of the 1803
Philadelphia ramped up hard in 1803: 33,040 coins, about 3 times the 1802 run. The next year it made 8,265 (1804).
No other mint struck it for circulation that year, so every 1803 you find is from Philadelphia. In the whole series, its mintage sits closest to the 1801 (34,640) and the 1798 (27,550).
Philadelphia struck the Draped Bust Dime in 10 issues between 1796 and 1807. By mintage this one lands in the more common half, while the key for that mint is the 1804 (8,265). Within the 1800s it's 4th smallest of 7, between the 1800 (21,760) and the 1801 (34,640).
The heraldic eagle and small runs (1798 to 1803)
In 1798 the dime received a new reverse, while the obverse kept thirteen stars from then on. The new reverse was the heraldic eagle adapted from the Great Seal. The eagle has a shield on its breast and holds arrows and an olive branch. A ribbon in its beak reads E PLURIBUS UNUM and stars and clouds sit above its head. The same eagle was used on the quarter eagle. Because the two coins were almost the same size, the Mint sometimes shared reverse dies between them.
Mintages stayed small. The figures of this period record coins delivered in each calendar year, not coins of each date. Philadelphia delivered 27,550 dimes in 1798, a total that includes 1798/97 overdates and a Small 8 variety. No dimes are dated 1799. In 1800 there were 21,760, in 1801 34,640, in 1802 just 10,975 and in 1803 33,040. The 1802 is the scarcest of these dates.
All of these dates are scarce and collectors attribute them by die pairs using JR numbers, from the standard reference published by the John Reich Collectors Society. When you check a dime from these years, read the date carefully. The 1798/97 shows traces of a 7 under the 8. Then look at the reverse to confirm the heraldic eagle. Most survivors are in low grades with soft strikes in places, which is normal for coins of the time.
Elsewhere in US coinage in 1803
The last silver dollars for decades were struck with this date. Dollar coinage stopped in 1804 and President Jefferson's administration formally suspended it in 1806 because the coins were being exported rather than circulating.
How to recognize it
Liberty faces right with her hair loosely tied by a ribbon, curls falling behind her neck and drapery across her bust. LIBERTY runs along the top, the date sits below the bust and stars fill both sides: fifteen in 1796, sixteen or thirteen in 1797 and thirteen from 1798 on. The 1796 and 1797 reverse shows a small eagle with raised wings standing on clouds inside an open wreath tied with a bow, ringed by UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. From 1798 the reverse carries the heraldic eagle, with a shield on its breast, arrows and an olive branch in its claws, a ribbon reading E PLURIBUS UNUM in its beak and stars under an arc of clouds. No denomination appears anywhere, so the size of about 19 millimeters and the reeded edge are what identify it.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Series | Draped Bust Dime (1796–1807) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1803 |
| Mint | Philadelphia Mint |
| Mint mark | None |
| Strike type | Circulation strike |
| Mintage | 33,040 |
| Face value | 10¢ |
| Composition | 89.24% silver, 10.76% copper |
| Weight | 2.7 grams |
| Diameter | 19 mm |
| Edge | Reeded |
| Silver content | 0.0775 troy oz (2.409 g) |
| Designer | Robert Scot |
Mintage: US Mint records as published in standard references, each figure checked against at least two independent sources. How we build these pages.