When three sisters from Ohio took an inherited coin to an expert, they learned it could sell for half a million dollars. At an auction by GreatCollections on Oct. 27, the coin more than delivered on its promise with a sale price of $506,250.
The U.S. Mint
At first glance, the coin, dated 1975, may look like a familiar Franklin D. Roosevelt dime. Like most rare coins, a few details set it apart. This coin was part of a proof set made for collectors. Proof coins, as defined by the U.S. Mint, are “specially produced…made from highly polished planchets and dies and often struck more than once to accent the design. Proof coins receive the highest quality strike possible and can be distinguished by their mirror-like background and frosted foreground.”
The dime came from one of the 2.84 million proof sets made by the San Francisco Mint in 1975. Each of the coins should have a mint mark identifying where it was made; in this case, an “S” for San Francisco. The mark should be just above the date on the head side of the coin. A close look shows that this dime has no such mark.
Collectors first recognized the “1975 No S Roosevelt Dime” in 1977. It quickly became what the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) calls “one of the great rarities of the modern era, with just two known specimens and a six-figure price.” In 1978, Illinois coin dealer Fred Vollmer sold a proof set containing one of these dimes to a family of dairy farmers in Ohio.
The family bought the proof set for $18,200. Dealers and collectors alike knew it contained a valuable rare coin, and the family considered it a safety net. The rest is history: The coin was kept secret in a secure bank vault for over 40 years until the sisters who inherited it consigned it to GreatCollections. At auction, the coin broke the previous auction record set in 2019 of $456,000 for a 1975 no-S Roosevelt dime.
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