Any one have info on morgan head dimes?

KlectorKid

i have seen a few of them before but i still dont know what the heck they are. Link to Morgan head dime

Placid

They are patterns.

Here is one site about them Link

coppercoins

the "J" designation refers to the "Judd" catalog of pattern coins...just for info - any time you see a J-something coin, it's a pattern.

boiler78

That coin was formerly in a PCGS 68 holder and sold as part of the Harry Bass collection lot 1111 for $24,150. It is a pretty coin but very darkly toned. Judd listed the coin as a high R7 (4-6 known) and Pollock lists it as R6-7 more like 12-20 known. PCGS and NGC have graded 10 coins total between them (but this coin is represented 3 times in the pop reports) so I tend to believe Judds figure.

boiler78

Heres an image of the 1588 from my "Morgan Minors" type set. The coin is not technically as nice as the Bass coin but the toning is lighter so the contrast stands out a bit better.

lclugza

Apparently the Mint, in the late 1870s, considered replacing the Seated design on the dimes, quarters, and halves with the design from the Morgan dollar, making all the silver coins of uniform design. Then a drop in the price of silver caused hoarded silver coins from earlier years to be placed back in circulation, which meant there was no need to keep minting large numbers of new dimes, quarters, and halves. The Mint must have decided it was too much trouble to change the designs on the subsidary silver coins if many of them were to be minted in minuscule quantities (as in 1879-91).
Only when all three denominations were minted in "normal" quantities again, in 1892, was there a design change (for some reason they went to the new Barber design instead of using the Morgan design).