Why this rare Ohio dime fetched $506,000 at auction

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — One extremely rare dime whose whereabouts had remained a mystery since the late 1970s and sold for just over $500,000.

Minted by the United States Mint in San Francisco in 1975, the coin features President Franklin D. Roosevelt and is one of only two known to exist without the distinctive “S” mint mark.

Three sisters from Ohio inherited the dime after the death of their brother, who had kept it in a bank vault for more than forty years.

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The coin sold for $506,250 in an online auction that concluded Sunday, according to Ian Russell, 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 auction for $456,000 in 2019 and again to a private collector months later.

FILE – This undated image from GreatCollections shows a 1975 dime that was mistakenly made without the San Francisco Mint's S mintmark. (GreatCollections via AP) — FILE – This undated image from GreatCollections shows a 1975 dime that was mistakenly made without the San Francisco Mint’s S mintmark. (GreatCollections via AP)

The San Francisco mint made more than 2.8 million special, uncirculated six-coin “proof” sets in 1975, selling for seven dollars. Collectors discovered a few years later that two dimes from the set were missing the mint mark.

Russell said the Ohio sisters, who wished to remain anonymous, told him they inherited one of those two dimes, but their brother and mother bought the first error coin discovered in 1978 for $18,200, which is about $90,000 today would amount to. Their parents, who ran a dairy farm, saw the currency as a financial safety net.

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