1821 US Coins: Values & Mintages

The Mint in the 1820s

Robert Scot, engraver since 1793, died in 1823 and William Kneass succeeded him the following year. Samuel Moore became director in 1824. The half dollar was the workhorse of the decade: banks used it as their main reserve coin and many millions were struck and stored rather than spent, which is why Capped Bust halves of the 1820s are still relatively easy to find.

Cents were coined in the hundreds of thousands to low millions each year, still from imported copper planchets. Gold coins continued to leave the country because their gold was worth more abroad than their face value at home. The close collar, a ring that holds the planchet during striking and gives coins a uniform diameter and a crisp rim, came into use late in the decade on the smaller silver coins.

How many coins were made in 1821

Counting the circulation issues on this page, US mints struck 3,098,160 coins dated 1821 across 4 issues. That is 50% fewer than in 1820 (6,228,703). In 1822 the figure rose to 3,795,992.

It was the smallest year since 1816.

Every circulation coin on this page came from Philadelphia.

Those coins held about 638,881 troy ounces of pure silver.

1821 coins by denomination

Cents: 389,000 struck in 1 circulation issue of the Coronet (Matron Head) Large Cent, down 91% on 1820.

Dimes: 1,186,512 struck in 1 circulation issue of the Capped Bust Dime, up 26% on 1820.

Quarters: 216,851 struck in 1 circulation issue of the Capped Bust Quarter, up 70% on 1820.

Half Dollars: 1,305,797 struck in 1 circulation issue of the Capped Bust Half Dollar, up 74% on 1820.

Every 1821 circulation issue at a glance

• 1821 Capped Bust Quarter: 216,851 struck, more than 53% of the series' 18 issues, up from 127,444 in 1820.
• 1821 Coronet (Matron Head) Large Cent: 389,000 struck, the lowest mintage of all 24 Coronet (Matron Head) Large Cent issues, down from 4,407,550 in 1820.
• 1821 Capped Bust Dime: 1,186,512 struck, more than 84% of the series' 20 issues, up from 942,587 in 1820.
• 1821 Capped Bust Half Dollar: 1,305,797 struck, 12th lowest of 35 in the series, up from 751,122 in 1820.

Coronet (Matron Head) Large Cent: Scarce dates of the early 1820s

Production dropped sharply in 1821 to only 389,000, in the slow economy that followed the Panic of 1819, making 1821 one of the harder dates of the type in higher grades. Output recovered to more than 2 million in 1822, yet the Mint reported no separate figure for 1823. Cents of that date are scarce. Both the 1823 and the 1823/2 overdate are considered keys.

Watch for restrikes: a discarded 1823 obverse die was later used outside the Mint to strike unofficial pieces, so an 1823 needs careful attribution before it is treated as an original. Overdates continue with the 1824/2 and the 1826/5, created when the Mint updated old dies instead of making new ones. By 1827 annual output passed 2.3 million again. Survivors from this period range widely in quality, but many show even wear and the medium brown color typical of the Coronet type.

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Capped Bust Quarter: Overdates and the 25/50 C. reverse

The early 1820s are full of reused and repunched dies. The 1820 comes with a small or large 0 in the date. The 1822 includes the 25/50 C. variety, where the engraver first punched 50 C. into a quarter die and then corrected it to 25 C. The 1823/2 had a recorded mintage of just 17,800 and is a major rarity in any condition.

Mint records give 168,000 for 1824, a figure that also covers coins dated 1825. All of those 1825 quarters show the final 5 punched over an earlier digit. The 1824/2 is scarce in its own right. Half dollars took most of the silver deposited at the Mint in these years, which kept quarter output modest. Survivors are usually in Good to Fine with soft centers. Coins with full curls and sharp stars are hard to find.

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Capped Bust Half Dollar: The 1815/2 and a run of overdates

Only 47,150 halves bear the 1815 date and all of them are overdates over a 2. A fire at the Mint in January 1816 damaged the rolling mill. No halves are dated 1816. The 1815/2 is the key date of the whole Capped Bust half series and is scarce in every grade. Most survivors show heavy wear.

Production resumed in 1817 and passed two million by 1819. The 1817/3 and the very rare 1817/4 head a long list of overdates that includes 1818/7, 1819/8, 1820/19, 1822/1 and 1824/1. The 1817 punctuated date shows a dot-like die flaw between 181 and 7. Many coins of this era show cracked dies or repunched letters, a sign that dies were kept in service as long as possible.

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Capped Bust Dime: A long gap and the 1822

After 1814 the Mint struck no dimes for five years. Foreign silver coins served as small change and depositors wanted half dollars instead. Dime production returned in 1820 with 942,587 coins, the largest total to that date. Like the 1814, the 1820 includes a STATESOFAMERICA variety where the words of the legend run together.

Philadelphia struck 1,186,512 dimes in 1821, the first dime mintage above one million. Then the total fell to just 100,000 in 1822, the key of the large size years. The 1822 is rare in every grade and a significant rarity even when worn.

Dimes of this period still have the open collar look: the rims vary in width and the denticles around the edge are long and uneven. Stars and date digits were punched into each die by hand, so their size and spacing vary from die to die. Collectors attribute the varieties by JR numbers. For an 1822, check the date carefully under magnification. An 1820 or 1821 is much more available and a good way to own an early Capped Bust dime. Proofs of a few dates of the 1820s were struck in tiny numbers, probably as presentation pieces. Only a handful exist. The gap from 1815 to 1819 is the longest break in dime production of the Capped Bust years. Check the reverse spacing and the edge reeding too.

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