The Ten Most Valuable Dimes

When is a dime worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even $2 million? When it is a very rare one that is highly sought by collectors! Some are condition rarities, while others exist in the smallest of numbers and have a lot of mystery and intrigue surrounding their origins. And many of them rarely come up for sale.

The coins discussed here are the ten most valuable dimes of the four series that are most widely collected: Roosevelt, Mercury, Barber and Seated Liberty based on the results of auction sales. There are of course also some very valuable coins in the Draped and Capped Bust series that are much harder to collect by date and mint mark than the other dimes.

Seated Liberty

1873-CC No Arrows sold for $1,880,000 in August 2012

A major American coin rarity that is not as well-known as coins like the 1913 Liberty nickel or 1804 silver dollar, this dime is believed to be the sole example saved of the 12,400 1873 dimes sent to the Assay Commission that were not melted. It is the king of Carson City coins and the rarest dime in our history. It was first offered for sale in 1878, and in 1915 sold for $170! It traded hands many times over the years and most recently brought almost $2 million in 2012. It is also the final coin Louis Eliasberg tracked down to complete his collection of one of every U.S. coin ever issued.

1841 No Drapery PF67+ CAC sold for $305,500 in November 2013

The finer of two known examples, this coin was considered to be a pattern issue by the great collector and numismatist Eric P. Neumann and by others as a transitional issue unlike any other dime because of the drapery is absent at the elbow, and for the full length of Liberty's upper arm inside the pole.

Barber

1894-S PCGS PF66 sold for $1,997,500 in January 2016

One of only 9 estimated surviving examples of 24 believed to have been struck, this is the finest examples in a PCGS holder. This coin’s mintage is believed to have been so small because the Panic of 1893 resulted in such widespread economic damage that there was little demand for small circulating coins like dimes. There is an infamous story about the young daughter of the then Mint Superintendent using one of these dimes to buy an ice cream cone on the way home from the Mint that is now considered to be folklore. Part of the problem with the story is she was 15 at the time and her father told her the coins were rare when her allegedly gave her three of them. Another example graded PCGS PF65+ sold for $1,440,000 last year.

1900 PCGS PF68+ sold for $66,000 in September 2020

This is the finest graded PCGS example of this coin that is popular with type collectors but is a major condition rarity at this grade. There is only one other PCGS-graded at this level but without the plus gin.

Mercury

1938-S MS68+ FB CAC sold for $364,250 in June 2019

This issue is not inherently rare and is not hard to find in mint state, but Full Bands examples are elusive. This example is the finest known and only one graded by PCGS at the MS68+ level.

1931-S MS67+ FB sold for $270,250 in June 2019

During the Great Depression there was reduced need for coinage, so mintages of circulating coins fell such as for this issue with only 1.8 million struck. And because a dime was not nothing during this era of great economic suffering, fem were saved though some rolls did surface through the 1950s. However, as with other dimes of this era, mint state coins with Full Bands are very scarce. This coin is the finest known example of this issue.

1916-D MS67 FB CAC sold for $207,000 in August 2010

This is the key date coin to the Mercury series with just 264,000 coins struck. It was only released on December 29 of 1916 and did not circulated until 1917 by which time the novelty of the first issue of the series was wearing off. The 1916 Philadelphia coin had a mintage of over 22 million and was available first and collecting by mint mark was not common at the time, so that is what people saved. This is the finest example of the estimated 600 total 1916-D coins that still exist today and only one to grade MS67.

Roosevelt

1975 No S PF68 sold for $456,000 in September 2019

The most valuable Roosevelt dime is the 1975 Proof No S of which only two are known to exist and both were discovered by the same collector who purchased proof sets from the Mint in 1975. In 1975 in addition to striking Proof dimes with an “S,” that mint also produced business-strike dime with no S on them. It is believed that some of the dies for circulation coins were accidentally polished to give them a Proof finish and then used to strike a small number of no S Proof dimes. Most were destroyed, but at least two were not noticed and went into the Proof sets. This coin is the finer of the two known coins.

1968 No S PF68 Cameo sold for $47,000 in December 2020

The second-rarest 20^th century dime is the 1968 Proof No S coin. 18 of these coins have been certified, and there are estimated to be at most 6 more coins out there. They are the result of failing to add the “S” mintmark to dies prepared that year at the Philly Mint that were shipped to San Francisco to produce Proof coins for that year’s Proof sets. None of the graded examples grade higher that PF68 with some being cameo and others deep cameo.

1951 PF68+ Deep Cameo sold for $23,500 in January 2014

This is the finest known example of this issue and is a condition rarity of a common issue. Of the 1,700 certified by PCGS only 20% (384 coins) have cameo surfaces and only one-half of 1% of those (16 coins) are deep cameo like this coin.