According to the Redbook, the 1955 Roosevelt dime has the lowest minatge(12,450,181 of the whole entire series. However, it only sells for $8.00 in MS 65(Redbook price). The 1949-S has the second lowest mintage (13,510,000) and sells for $50 in MS-65. Why does the 1949-S so much more exspensive than the 1955, and why is the 1955 one of the more cheaper dimes of the series?
Funny you should mention this.... I bought a 55 P, D, & S today. All of them in around MS-64/5 grade.
Thats my year of birth...we need to jack up the prices some huh?? It sort of seems like (in the series 1950 thru 1964 )that 1955 is the year the prices start declining.. I hope someone will post a reason why?? RickieB
Mostly IMHO because people of the time were able to obtain the coin very easily and with the roll collecting craze of the late 50s (I think?) managed to stash these babies away in numbers. Key dates are not always the lowest mintage. The 1950-D Jefferson Nickel is another example of this type of phenomenon. It is the lowest mintage in the series, yet widely hoarded in MS. To this day many other dates of Jefferson sell for more than the 1950-D in a like condition. The 1949-S Roosevelt has never been easily obtainable in Mint State and many of the better grade examples were only available from Mint Sets.
people saved rolls in those days, lower mintage, but many saved. One thing to look for is well struck early 50's S mint mark dimes. Also remember there was no mint set in 1950 so the 1950s dime is what you want.
The Franklin Half is the same. The 55 had a very low mintage, but the 49-S is the hardest and most expensive in the series.
This is the classic DANGER of investing in keys and semi-keys. Just pull out a redbook from the 70's. Yes, the 1955 roosys have the highest value. Why? Because they had the lowest mintages and guess which ones people saved up? Surprise!! So as time has gone on, turns out that the 1955 is NOT the most valuable roosy - the valuable ones are the ones people WERE NOT investing in/hoarding away. With modern coins, there really are no "key" dates. When you start talking about 10's of millions of coins produced a few decades ago, there are still millions of them floating around. My adivice - get your roosy set, but don't be collecting "key" dates in this series unless you like watching grass grow.
The real keys are in the clad series. The '82-P is significantly scarcer than the '49-S in chU and even moreso in gem. The '69, '83, and '83-D are also scarcer in gem. Virtually all of the clad dimes are scarcer than the '55 in unc. All the rare dimes are in the later dates as well. These include silver 1965 dimes, the '68, '70 and '75 no-S issues and the '82-NMM dime. You might also include the silver proofs since 1992 and the '96-W issue. There are some great varieties as well but these appear in the silver issues too.
The demand is that nice ones are very hard to find. For example, NGC has graded a grand total of 3 higher than 64 and only 2 at 64.
There's very little demand for moderns which is why they're so cheap. Finding nice examples is pretty tough but even MS-60's are quite scarce compared to the silver issues. AU's can still be found in circulation without great effort. The '82-P dime was mostly poorly struck from old and misaligned dies. The bulk of the coins were marked up as well. Finding uncirculated specimens with the tops of the periphery lettering present and with only light marking can be tough.
A few years back the 1955-P D and S were very hot I have a few in Gem BU the 55-D mintage is only 13,959,000 very near the the P
Demand Demand? Anyone have a comment on the demand for those dates? Value is a function of Supply and Demand. There are a lot of Roosevelt Dimes in the world with no supply limitations in site. What is the demand, and what is the forcast of demand. Ruben
No one can see the future. I've always believed that moderns would have a similar demand to the older coins in the long run. When I started setting these aside most people laughed at me because they said even if I'm right that there is very little supply it wouldn't matter if there was never any demand. There is a little demand now. I still believe the demand will be comparable to the demand for the old coins eventually but it's already taken far longer than I'd have predicted.
In 1982 and 1983 the Mint store in Philly sold Uncirculated Souvenir sets it had all the coins plus a bronze Mint medal The Dever store also had them
Well I am still stuck on the 1953P Franklin. It seems a good one is $220 raw. The dealer says "You can have it for $200". No thank you. Still looking...
agreed Philly, they offered them and I happen to own one of each souvenir set from each mint from both years. However, they are NOT as readily available as Mint sets, heck some people don't even know of them. I estimate the number of them is also much smaller than the typical number of Mint Sets would have been as well. My point is that there are fewer sources for these coins in mint packaging than other years. Significantly fewer.
These were also available mail order though few were aware of it. Sales were dismal. 10,000 of the '82-P, 15,000 '83-P, and 20,000 for each of the Denvers. Attrition on these was staggeringly high and still is. In the '80's most dealers didn't know they were anything special and many were cut up to use as change. Now days they are one of the few sources for some of the coins in them so they are cut up for collections.