1873-CC Seated Liberty Dime: Arrows Mark the Weight Change
Coin Encyclopedia · 9 min read · Published November 7, 2026
Look at the date on an 1873-CC Seated Liberty dime. On either side of it, small arrows point inward — one on the left, one on the right. Those arrows are the whole story of the coin. In 1873 the Coinage Act raised the dime’s weight slightly, from 2.49 grams to 2.5 grams, and the Mint added arrows beside the date to mark the new standard. Carson City struck just 12,400 of them, and the 1873-CC Arrows is one of the great small-mintage rarities of the American West.
There are no researched grade values for this date in our guide yet, so the grade table below shows “—” rather than invented figures. What follows is everything that can be said without guessing: the Coinage Act, the arrows, the mintage, the grading, and the rarer No Arrows companion that shares its year.
The Coinage Act of 1873 and the arrows
The Coinage Act of 1873 rewrote American coinage. Among its many changes, it raised the silver dime’s weight slightly — from 2.49 grams, the standard set in 1853, to 2.5 grams — and it did so in the middle of a production year. The Mint needed a way to tell the new-weight coins from the old-weight coins, and the answer was the arrows: small arrowheads placed beside the date, one on each side, on every dime struck to the new standard in 1873 and 1874. The arrows are a weight mark, not a decoration, and they are the diagnostic for the variety.
That is why the 1873-CC Arrows is a variety rather than a date. The year 1873 produced two kinds of Carson City dime: the early ones, struck to the old 2.49-gram standard with no arrows, and the later ones, struck to the new 2.5-gram standard with arrows beside the date. The 12,400 mintage in our catalog belongs to the Arrows issue. The No Arrows issue is a separate coin, far rarer, and covered in its own section below — because confusing the two is the easiest mistake a collector can make on this date.
Carson City in 1873
By 1873 the Carson City Mint was in its fourth year, and the Comstock Lode was at its peak. Nevada silver was flowing, the mint was striking coin for a territory that ran on it, and the 1873-CC Arrows dimes went straight into circulation in the mining towns of the West — Virginia City, Gold Hill, Austin, Eureka — where they wore down fast in daily use. A dime in a mining town bought a drink, a meal, or a shave, and it changed hands a dozen times a day.
That working life is written on the survivors. An 1873-CC Arrows is usually found worn, often heavily, with soft high points and the kind of honest circulation wear that no cleaning can fake. A crisp example is a coin that escaped a decade of hard use in a hard place, and very few did. The mintage of 12,400 is the anchor — the smallest Carson City dime mintage of the Arrows years — and the market has never forgotten a mintage that small.
What an 1873-CC Arrows dime is worth by grade
Our guide has not researched grade values for the 1873-CC Arrows yet, and the table below says so plainly. A dash is not a zero and it is not a guess — it is a gap, and this page would rather show the gap than invent a figure for it.
| Grade | Estimated value |
|---|---|
| Good (G-4) | — |
| Fine (F-12) | — |
| Extremely Fine (XF-40) | — |
| About Uncirculated (AU-50) | — |
| Mint State 60 (MS-60) | — |
| Mint State 65 (MS-65) | — |
Guide values reviewed November 5, 2026 — figures update live from our Worker.
The live module on this page checks our Worker for reported results for this exact date and grade on every load. When a verified result exists for a grade, it appears in the table above; until then, the dash stands.
What can be said without a number is the shape of the market. A Carson City dime with a mintage of 12,400 and a variety marker as clear as the arrows behaves like the rarity it is: worn examples are scarce, Mint State examples are events, and each appearance is valued on its own merits. The mintage is the anchor, the arrows are the diagnostic, and the CC mint mark is the multiplier.
Arrows vs No Arrows
The 1873-CC comes in two varieties, and the arrows are the difference. The Arrows issue — this page’s coin — carries small arrowheads beside the date, one on each side, marking the new 2.5-gram standard of the Coinage Act of 1873. The No Arrows issue carries no arrows, was struck to the old 2.49-gram standard, and is far rarer than the Arrows issue. The two are often confused, and the confusion is expensive: they are different coins with different markets.
Check the date first, under a 10x loupe, in good light. The arrows sit immediately beside the digits, left and right, and on a worn coin they can be soft — but they are there on every genuine Arrows example, because they were part of the die. Then weigh the coin: an Arrows example is 2.5 grams, and a No Arrows example is 2.49 grams. The difference is a hundredth of a gram, and it takes a precise scale to measure — but the arrows are visible to the eye, and they are the test that matters.
Specs — silver, the new 2.5-gram standard
The 1873-CC Arrows is a silver dime of the new standard: 90% silver and 10% copper, 17.9 millimetres across, weighing 2.5 grams. That weight is the point of the coin — the Coinage Act of 1873 raised it from 2.49 grams, and the arrows beside the date are the Mint’s own label for the change. The silver content follows that weight, and the coin feels identical in the hand to every later silver dime.
The metal floor for this issue is shown as — on this page: our melt table does not cover Seated Liberty dimes, and this page will not invent a figure for it. What the specs do tell you is how to check the coin — weigh it at 2.5 grams, measure it at 17.9 millimetres, and check the edge for sharp, even reeding. A genuine 1873-CC Arrows is exactly that weight and exactly that size, and a cast copy feels light and often shows tiny bubbles or seams under magnification.
Grading and authentication
Grade a Seated Liberty dime by Liberty herself. On the obverse, look at her head, her knee, and the drapery of her gown: on a worn coin they are soft and merged, on a sharp coin each fold is distinct. The shield she rests on carries its own detail, and the legend around her — UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, on this later issue — should be full and sharp on a high-grade example. On the reverse, look at the wreath: the leaves and grains should be distinct, not blended into a smooth ring.
On the 1873-CC Arrows, add two more checks. First, the arrows themselves: they should be crisp and correctly placed beside the date, struck at the same depth as the rest of the design. Second, the CC below the wreath on the reverse: a genuine CC is crisp and correctly placed, while an added CC often shows tool marks in the metal around the letters. Any 1873-CC Arrows whose value clears the grading fee belongs in a PCGS or NGC holder — certification settles the variety, the mint mark, and the grade together, and it is where the premium is paid.
Verified auction records
No standalone record for the 1873-CC Arrows sits in our verified records file. The Seated Liberty dime series has no single headline record in our data — its market is defined by mintage and grade rather than by one famous result, and the 1873-CC Arrows’ mintage of 12,400 is the figure that defines it.
For this date, the honest measure is the live results panel below, which checks for newly reported results every time the page loads. A Carson City dime with a mintage of twelve thousand appears rarely enough that each appearance is news, and the panel is where that news lands first.
Latest reported results for this coin
Checking for newly reported results…
Your 1873-CC Seated Liberty dime questions, answered
How much is an 1873-CC Seated Liberty dime worth?
Our guide has not researched grade values for the 1873-CC Arrows yet, so the grade table above shows — rather than invented figures. The live module on this page checks for newly reported results on every load. The mintage of 12,400 and the CC mint mark are the anchors for its scarcity.
What do the arrows mean on an 1873 dime?
The arrows beside the date mark the Coinage Act of 1873, which raised the dime’s weight from 2.49 grams to 2.5 grams. The Mint added arrows to every dime struck to the new standard in 1873 and 1874, so the arrows are a weight mark, not a decoration.
What is the difference between the 1873-CC Arrows and No Arrows?
The Arrows issue was struck to the new 2.5-gram standard and carries arrowheads beside the date; the No Arrows issue was struck to the old 2.49-gram standard with no arrows, and is far rarer. They are different coins with different markets.
Is the 1873-CC Seated Liberty dime silver?
Yes. The 1873-CC Arrows is 90% silver and 10% copper, weighing 2.5 grams to the new 1873 standard. The metal floor for this issue is shown as — on this page.
Where is the mint mark on an 1873-CC dime?
On the reverse, below the wreath. CC means Carson City, O means New Orleans, S means San Francisco, and no letter means Philadelphia.
Check your 1873-CC
Run the date and mint mark through the free Coin Value Checker for an instant estimate, or get a Grade-or-Not verdict on whether your coin is worth certifying. The full dime guide is here: How Much Is a Dime Worth?.
Written for the West: the 1873-CC Arrows is the weight-change dime of Carson City, and this guide exists so the next one found gets its arrows checked before it is spent.
This guide is for education — learn the coin first, and get a professional opinion before buying or selling.
