Rare Roosevelt Coin Hidden For Decades Up For Auction

A rare dime depicting President Franklin D. Roosevelt is set to go up for auction.
Three Ohio sisters discovered the coin, which was hidden for decades, and may be surprised by its value.
Unbeknown to the sisters, who inherited the dime after their brother’s recent death, the coin could bring more than $500,000 at auction, according to Ian Russell, president of GreatCollections, which is overseeing the online sale that will end in October.
The dime, minted in 1975 in San Francisco, is one of only two known examples missing the “S” mint mark—a seemingly small oversight that has made it a coveted item among coin collectors. Another of these rare dimes was auctioned for $456,000 in 2019 and sold again to a private buyer shortly after.
While coin enthusiasts have long known about the existence of the “no S” dime, the mystery of its whereabouts persisted until now.
“They were hidden for decades. Most major collectors and dealers have never seen one,” Russell, whose company is based in Irvine, California, told The Associated Press.
While the sisters want to remain anonymous, they shared with Russell that their family, dairy farmers by trade, purchased the rare coin for $18,200 in 1978, a significant sum at the time, equivalent to around $90,000 today. They had kept the coin as a form of financial security, hidden from the public eye.
However, after decades of her brother talking about it, one of the sisters finally saw the coin for the first time last year. The discovery was astonishing, especially when Russell explained its true value. “Is that really possible?” she reportedly asked.
This comes after Russell said their brother reached out to him about seven years ago and eventually told him about the coin, keeping the secret for years.
Now, the dime is set to be displayed at a coin show in Tampa, Florida, before heading to auction in October, where it could spark renewed interest in rare coin collections.
Russell believes this latest discovery could lead to a renewed frenzy of searching for other lost examples of the rare coin, known as the “1975 ‘no S’ proof dime,” though any additional finds would likely come from sealed 1975 proof sets rather than pocket circulation.
In an emailed response to Newsweek, Russell noted the importance the coin has stating, “This is a very exciting coin for our company to auction—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.”
Meanwhile, this is not the first time a rare coin has been valued and sold at such a high price. An extremely rare gold coin depicting Queen Elizabeth I was sold in 2022 for $770,000 at an auction in Germany, making it the most expensive coin ever auctioned in the country at that time.
Estimated at $274,000 by experts at the Kuenker Auction House, in Osnabrück, Germany, the coin went for far more. The highest bidder, who was present in the auction hall during the event, was not identified.
Called Kampener Rosenoble, the coin measures 1.73 inches across and weighs 2.15 oz. Fritz Kuenker, senior chief of the auction house, said: “Such large gold coins are extremely rare.”
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press