1823 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 1823

Counting the circulation issues on this page, US mints struck 3,414,000 coins dated 1823 across 4 issues. That is close to the 1822 total of 3,795,992. In 1824 the figure rose to 5,034,954.

Every circulation coin on this page came from Philadelphia.

Those coins held about 692,778 troy ounces of pure silver.

1823 coins by denomination

Cents: 1,262,000 struck in 1 circulation issue of the Coronet (Matron Head) Large Cent, down 39% on 1822.

Dimes: 440,000 struck in 1 circulation issue of the Capped Bust Dime, up 340% on 1822.

Quarters: 17,800 struck in 1 circulation issue of the Capped Bust Quarter, down 72% on 1822.

Half Dollars: 1,694,200 struck in 1 circulation issue of the Capped Bust Half Dollar, up 8.6% on 1822.

Every 1823 circulation issue at a glance

• 1823 Capped Bust Quarter: 17,800 struck, 2nd lowest of 18 in the series, down from 64,080 in 1822.
• 1823 Capped Bust Dime: 440,000 struck, 9th lowest of 20 in the series, up from 100,000 in 1822.
• 1823 Coronet (Matron Head) Large Cent: 1,262,000 struck, 2nd lowest of 24 in the series, down from 2,072,339 in 1822.
• 1823 Capped Bust Half Dollar: 1,694,200 struck, more than 50% of the series' 35 issues, similar to 1822.

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.

See every Coronet (Matron Head) Large Cent →

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.

See every Capped Bust Quarter →

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.

See every Capped Bust Half Dollar →

Capped Bust Dime: Overdates and a million-coin year

The Mint reused old dies by repunching the date. Every 1823 dime shows a 3 over a 2. A total of 440,000 were struck. Small E and Large E versions exist on the reverse. Every 1824 dime shows a 4 over a 2. Mint records lump the dimes of 1824 and 1825 together at 510,000, which references divide as about 100,000 for 1824 and 410,000 for 1825.

No dimes are dated 1826. In 1827 the Mint made 1,215,000, a high total for the time and the last big year of the large size design. Philadelphia was the only mint striking dimes at the time. The 1827 is one of the more available Capped Bust dimes and often turns up in collections as a type coin. Even so, many Americans of the time rarely handled a dime. Spanish reales and half reales still made up much of their small change.

Overdates are easy to spot when the coin is not too worn. Look at the last digit under a magnifier for the curve of the 2 behind the 3 or the 4. Survivors of this period are mostly circulated, often cleaned and sometimes holed. William Kneass became Chief Engraver in these years and later changed the dime's size, so these are among the last dimes struck the old way in an open collar.

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