Rare Dime Expected to Fetch Eye-Popping Amount at Auction

A rare dime struck in 1975 by the U.S. Mint in San Francisco, CA, is set to sell at auction for an eye-popping amount of money.

Ian Russell, president of currency auction site Great Collections, contends that the 10-cent piece will sell for as much as $500,000 when the auction concludes in October. A similarly rare dime sold for $456,000 back in 2019, and was later acquired by a private collector. The two coins are considered especially rare because they are missing a printed “S” to denote they were made in San Francisco. Collectors have been aware of their existence for decades, but their exact location has remained unknown for nearly 50 years.

“They were hidden for decades,” Russell explained. “Most major collectors and dealers have never seen one.”

The dime currently on auction was finally discovered when three sisters in Ohio inherited the treasured items of a deceased relative, who had kept the coin in a bank vault since the late 1970s. Though the siblings wish to remain anonymous, they revealed to Russell that their family of dairy farmer’s purchased the coin in 1978 for $18,200—roughly $90,000 today. They did so as a form of financial security, holding onto the coin until it accrued enough value to sell off.

Still, none of the family members expected its value to be almost half of a million dollars. After Russell returned his appraisal of the coin, one of the sisters reportedly asked him, “Is that really possible?”

"This is a very exciting coin for our company to auction,” Russell told Newsweek . “As you can see, bidding is already up to $250,000. We've handled many trophy coins over the years, including two 1913 Nickels and two 1804 Silver Dollars—but this is the first time for the 1975 No S Proof Dime, the most important modern U.S. coin."