i was searching through all my coins the other day and i came across some 1968 dimes with out any s,d, or p on them, i had heard that these might be a mistake and was wandering if anyone could give me some more info on them?
No pic needed. Philadelphia produced 424,470,400 dimes in 1968. None of them have a mintmark. The 1968 dime without a mintmark that is valuable is the Proof dime. San Francisco produced Proof dimes in 1968 and a very, very, very small number of them were struck without the 'S' mintmark.
The valuable dime is 1968 no s PROOF dime, it's mirror like and only found in proof set, what you have is a common Philadelphia dime
Philadelphia did not produce Proof dimes in 1968, only San Francisco. Proof coins have a completely different look to them. If you found your coins in circulation the odds are very, very, very small that they are 1968 'No S' Proof dimes. They are almost certainly regular, ordinary coins produced for circulation.
You'll know a proof if you see it. If by some odd chance of luck, the coin has circulated long enough to where it's indistinguishable as a proof, well, then it's not a proof anymore.
Just a side note... proofs are popping up a lot more in circulation nowadays; I picked up a proof Kennedy half at the bank, my daughter received a proof Washington quarter in change. That's two in a month... two more than I found in the past fifty-five years.
Well, impaired proofs can usually still be distinguished as proofs after a lot of wear due to edges and other tell tales. If a coin got beat up enough to not be able to tell, its still a proof, you just cannot tell. A proof is a proof forever, "proof" or "business strike" is set in stone the second its struck, regardless of what happens later.
"Proofness" refers to the method of production, not condition. A (well) circulated proof coin is still a proof coin.
I know this, but I'm just saying that if a proof no longer looks like a proof, then for all practical purposes it may as well just be a business strike, unless it's a recent one where the S mintmark gives it away. Just reinforcing the "You'll know a proof if you see one" idea.
