An extraordinarily rare dime that had been missing since the late 1970s has been sold for just over $500,000. The coin, minted by the U.S. Mint in San Francisco in 1975, features President Franklin D. Roosevelt and is one of only two known to exist without the distinctive “S” mint mark.
The dime was inherited by three sisters from Ohio after the passing of their brother, who had kept it in a bank vault for over 40 years. The coin was sold for $506,250 in an online auction that concluded on Sunday, according to Ian Russell, the president of GreatCollections, an auction house based in Irvine, California.
The only other known example of the “1975 ‘no S’ proof dime” was sold at an auction in 2019 for $456,000 and later to a private collector. The San Francisco Mint produced over 2.8 million special uncirculated “proof” sets in 1975, each containing six coins and sold for $7. It was later discovered by collectors that two dimes from the set were missing the mint mark.
According to Russell, the sisters from Ohio, who wished to remain anonymous, revealed that they inherited one of the two dimes missing the mint mark, while their brother and mother had purchased the first error coin discovered in 1978 for $18,200, equivalent to around $90,000 today. Their parents, who ran a dairy farm, viewed the coin as a financial safety net.