Hey guys, I'm really new here and extremely new to coin collecting so please bare with me... So I've read online about the "rare" 1975 no mint "S" dime and although I would love to think I have in my possession not one, but THREE of them... yeah, I'm not holding my breath! lol -- But again, since I'm learning, I'm curious to see if these dimes do in fact have any value considering how they look, which to me, is pretty nice, but you can see for yourselves (please note the reverse side of "Dime 3" looks very similar to that of "Dime 1" and I would have posted the pic, except I was only allowed to attach "5 pics per post"). Dime "1" (pics "Dime1-2 and Dime1-3") Dime "2" (pics "Dime2-1 and Dime2-3") Dime "3" (pic "Dime1-3") Thanks again and I appreciate any feedback.
You have 30 cents of value, these are regular issue from the Philadelphia mint, the rare no S dimes are proof versions.
Just because a dime made prior to 1980 doesn't have a mint mark, doesn't make it rare. Philadelphia did not place the mint mark on their circulation issues then. You could tell which mint it was made at because the Denver Mint used a D, and the Philly mint did not use one at all. When dimes were also made in Proof issues, they were made in San Francisco, and had the S mint mark. It is very rare that the S Proof dimes can be found without the mint mark. That is the rarity. 1975 was the first year (in recent history) where that mint was used exclusively for proof mintage. This was still in an era where mintmarks were punched individually onto the dies, and they got their dies shipped from Philadelphia without the mintmarks on them (as did Denver, but if Denver missed a circulation mintmark, you can't tell the difference from a Philadelphia minted one - however, proof issues are able to be differentiated from a circulation strike). So it was possible for a hand punched mintmark to be missed when doing the dies, or they may have had a late replacement or shipment, and it was someone's Monday morning and they didn't pay attention to it that day. Possibly, when it was discovered, they not only pulled the die, but also tried to cull all those coins. Having that type of process usually cannot get "all" errors out, which is why one or more may have slipped by. Also, in 1982, about 10 or 15,000 dimes were minted without a mint mark at Philadelphia. It was an error on the mint's part, in using two dies (I believe it's limited to two dies) that did not have the mint mark placed on it prior to use. They found their error and pulled the dies, but a number of coins made it to circulation. Those dimes are worth more than most clad dimes, but not in the range of the 1975 no mint mark proof that was found. An article about the 1982 ones is here: http://www.pcgs.com/Articles/Detail...e&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ezine04102012.
Well, not to pick nits but there are only about 280,000,000 dimes like his and most exhibit quite a bit more wear. I only point this out because it's so easy to forget that coins have a 30 year life expectancy and those sur- viving just get a little bit thinner every year. It won't be so long before nice examples get few and far between and we should try to see it coming. This is what coin collecting is about.
