Three Ohio sisters who inherited a dime that had been sitting in a bank vault for more than 40 years knew it had some value. But they had no idea until a few years ago.
THE extraordinarily rare coinstruck by the U.S. Mint in San Francisco in 1975, could fetch more than $500,000, said Ian Russell, president of GreatCollections, which specializes in currency and is running an online auction that ends in October.
What makes the Franklin D. Roosevelt dime so valuable is its lack of the San Francisco “S” mint mark, one of only two coins known to exist without it. The other sold at auction in 2019 for $456,000, and then a few months later to a private collector.
Although 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’ve been hidden for decades,” Russell said. “Most major collectors and dealers have never seen one.”
In 1975, the San Francisco Mint produced over 2.8 million uncirculated special “proof” series, including six coins, which sold for $7. A few years later, collectors discovered that two dimes in the series lacked the mint mark.
/ AP
The Ohio sisters who inherited one of those two dimes after their brother’s recent death wish to remain anonymous given their sudden windfall, Russell said.
They told Russell that their brother and mother bought the first discovered fake coin in 1978 for $18,200, which would be worth about $90,000 today. Their parents, who ran a dairy farm, saw the coin as a financial safety net.
One of the sisters said her brother often talked about the rare coin. But she had never seen it with her own eyes until last year.
Russell, whose company is based in Irvine, Calif., said his brother contacted him about seven years ago and eventually told him about the piece. He, too, kept it a secret.
When Russell spoke to one of the sisters just a few years ago about the potential value of the coin, she said, “Is that really possible?”
The coin, known as the “1975 ‘no S’ proof dime,” will now be on display at a numismatic show that opens Wednesday in Tampa, Florida, and before the auction closes in late October, Russell said.
While there is a chance that more examples of this rare dime could be available, they would only be found among 1975 “proof” sets and not in anyone’s change, Russell said.
He nevertheless expects this latest discovery to trigger a lot of research.
