Three sisters from Ohio Anyone who inherited a dime that had been kept in a bank vault for more than 40 years knew it had value. But until a few years ago, they didn’t know how much.
This An exceptionally rare coinStruck by the U.S. Mint in San Francisco in 1975, it could fetch more than $500,000, said Ian Russell, president of Great Collections, which specializes in the currency and is conducting the online auction, which ends in October.
President Franklin D. What makes the dime featuring Roosevelt so valuable is the missing “S” mint mark for San Francisco, one of only two without the mark in existence. Another sold for $456,000 at auction in 2019 and then again months later to a private collector.
While serious coin collectors have long known of the existence of these two rare dimes, their whereabouts have remained a mystery since the late 1970s.
“They were hidden for decades,” Russell said. “Most major collectors and dealers have never seen one.”
The mint in San Francisco produced more than 2.8 million special obsolescent “proof” sets in 1975 that contained six coins and sold for $7. A few years later a collector discovered that two dimes from the set lacked mintmarks.
The Ohio sisters who inherited one of those two dimes after their brother’s recent death wished to remain anonymous because of their sudden windfall, Russell said.
They shared with Russell that their brother and mother bought the first error coin in 1978 for $18,200, which would be roughly $90,000 today. His parents, who ran a dairy farm, saw coins as a financial safety net.
A sister said her brother often talked about rare coins. But she had never seen it first-hand until last year.
Russell, whose company is based in Irvine, California, said his brother approached him about seven years ago and finally told him about the coin. He also kept a secret.
When Russell told a sister about the coin’s potential value a few years ago, he said she remarked “Is that really possible?”
Now the coin, known as the “1975 ‘No S’ Proof Dime,” will be on display at a coin show in Tampa, Florida starting Wednesday before the auction closes in late October, Russell said.
While there are likely more examples of the rare dime, it will only be found in 1975 “proof” sets and not in someone’s pocket change, Russell said.
Still, he expects this latest discovery to stop many searches.
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