The dime, which is one of only two known to exist in the world, was kept by a collector in a bank vault for 46 years.
GreatCollectionsThe dime on the right is missing the “S” mark of the San Francisco mint, making it extremely rare.
In 1975, the U.S. Mint in San Francisco produced 2.8 million proof sets — coins for collectors, not for circulation — marked with an “S.” But at least two of these coins lacked the “S” mark. Now, after being hidden in a bank vault for 46 years, one of them has been sold for a jaw-dropping $500,000.
Its fate was long unknown to coin collectors — until now.
The ‘Lost’ Dime That Spent 46 Years In A Bank
At first glance, the dime looks like any other. It depicts Franklin D. Roosevelt and shows the year, 1975, in the bottom right-hand corner. But anyone with sharp eyes — and some knowledge of coins — would notice that it’s missing the mint mark, usually located right above the year.
“All proofs from 1975 should have had a S mint mark, denoting it was made in San Francisco,” Ian Russell, the president of GreatCollections auction house, which sold the coin, explained to All That’s Interesting in an email. “Some got out of the Mint without the S. Only two have been discovered of this date, and it’s considered the rarest of modern U.S. coins.”
GreatCollectionsThe dime sold for over $500,000, setting a record for the auction house.
To GreatCollections this made the dime the “the grail of modern coins.” Russell explained in an auction house statement that it “is missing from the Smithsonian, ANS [American Numismatic Society], and ANA [American Numismatic Association] institutional collections.”
Unsurprisingly, it garnered great interest at auction, ultimately selling for $506,250. According to GreatCollections, the dime received “over 200 bids” and set a “new all-time auction record.”
“We received interest in this modern rarity from all over the world — serious collectors from Germany, Japan and the U.K., as well as collectors from the U.S. — over 400 unique bidders were actively tracking the auction,” Russell explained in the GreatCollections statement.
Indeed, the dime went on a long and fascinating journey from the moment it was minted, flaw and all, in San Francisco in 1975.
How The Rare Dime Made Its Way From San Francisco To Ohio
GreatCollectionsThe dime was “lost” for almost 50 years before it resurfaced in Ohio.
As Russell told All That’s Interesting, the dime’s flaw was first noticed in 1977. A California collector, who had ordered five proof sets by mail, examined their coins and noticed that two of the dimes were missing the “S” mark.
The customer sold the coins. They made their way into the collection of Chicago-based coin dealer F.J. Vollmer & Company, who sold them again. But although one resurfaced in 2011, when it sold for $349,600 (and then again in 2019 for $456,000), the other one seemingly vanished after the 1970s.
Then, in 2017, Russell got an interesting phone call from an Ohio man who slowly but surely admitted to owning the missing dime. He had bought it with his mother and kept it in a bank vault for 46 years.
“I had known that two [of the dimes] existed for decades — since the 1990s,” Russell recalled to All That’s Interesting. “But it was a call I received in 2017 or thereabouts from a man who lived in Ohio — and after several calls over a few months, he finally admitted he owned this coin — he felt relieved when he told me, as only 3-4 people over the past 46 years knew he had it.”
Russell continued: “We would talk every few months about coins in general, and also this rarity. Sadly, he passed away earlier this year. He left a note for his family to call me and sell the coin through our auctions.”
When the collector died, his three sisters inherited it.
“They knew it was a special coin, but did not know it was a half a million dollars,” Russell explained. “That’s a house, a really nice house. What was very nice — the man who had the coin, always considered it a family asset — so he wanted his sisters to enjoy the wealth from the sale. He mentioned this to me a couple of times. But the sisters lived the past 40+ years thinking it was his coin and he would reap the benefits one day. He was very close to his family — and generous by leaving it to them.”
GreatCollectionsThe proof set, including the rare 1975 coin with the missing “S” mark.
The most recent buyer, who GreatCollections did not name, plans to follow in the footsteps of the coin’s previous owner and keep the valuable dime in his family.
“After spirited bidding, it was ultimately won by a long-time client of ours who appreciates rarities that infrequently appear on the market,” GreatCollections stated. “His goal is for his family to own it for the next 46 years, similar to the seller’s family who consigned it to GreatCollections.”
After reading about the rare 1975 “no S” proof dime that sold for $500,000 at auction, go inside the hunt for the Victorio Peak treasure, the hoard of gold said to be hidden in the New Mexico desert. Or, learn about the SS Central America, the ship that sank in 1857 while carrying 15 tons of gold.
