United States | |
Value | 0.10 U.S. dollars |
---|---|
Mass | 2.50 g |
Diameter | 17.9 mm (0.705 in) |
Thickness | 1.35 mm (0.053 in) |
Edge | reeded |
Composition | 90% Silver, 10% Copper |
Years of minting | 1894 |
Obverse | |
Design | Lady Liberty with cap and cropped hair |
Designer | Charles E. Barber |
Design date | 1892 |
Reverse | |
Design | Wreath circling the words "ONE DIME" |
Designer | Charles E. Barber |
Design date | 1892 |
The 1894-S Barber dime is a dime produced in the United States Barber coinage. It is one of the rarest and most highly prized United States coins for collectors, along with the 1804 dollar and the 1913 Liberty Head nickel. One was sold in 2005 for $1.3 million, [1] and another for $1.9 million in 2007. [2] Only 24 were minted, and of those, only nine are known to survive; all nine (as was the entire mintage) were proof coins; two are heavily worn impaired proofs. In 1957, one of the latter was found in a junk coin box at Gimbels Department Store, and purchased for $2.40.
In the first half of 1894, just 24 proofs of the Barber series dimes were manufactured at the San Francisco Mint. [1] [2] Why only 24 of the coins were minted is unknown. [1] The superintendent of the San Francisco Mint is said to have had them minted as gifts for some important bankers. Another theory is that the mint's annual audit showed a discrepancy of $2.40, so the dimes were struck to compensate for this. [1] [2] Three of the dimes were said to have been given to the superintendent's daughter, who allegedly spent one on a dish of ice cream and sold the other two in the 1950s. [3]
Due to the rarity of the coin and the mysteries surrounding its past, the 1894-S dime is one of the most valuable coins produced in the United States. [4] In the late 1990s, one of the remaining 1894-S dimes was bought for $825,000. Since then they have sold for $1,035,000 in 2005; $1.3 million also in 2005; and $1.9 million in 2007. At a January 7, 2016, auction by Heritage held during the Florida United Numismatists show, the finest known example, graded Proof 66 by Professional Coin Grading Service with a green Certified Acceptance Corp. sticker, sold for $1,997,500. [5] [1] [2] In August 2019, another coin was sold at a Stacks Bowers Galleries auction in Chicago, Illinois, for $1,320,000. [6] The buyer was Dell Loy Hansen, then the owner of Major League Soccer team Real Salt Lake. [7]
1943 steel cents are U.S. one-cent coins that were struck in steel due to wartime shortages of copper. The Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco mints each produced these 1943 Lincoln cents. The unique composition of the coin has led to various nicknames, such as wartime cent, steel war penny, zinc cent and steelie. The 1943 steel cent features the same Victor David Brenner design for the Lincoln cent which had been in use since 1909.
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The half dime, or half disme, was a silver coin, valued at five cents, formerly minted in the United States.
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Louis Edward Eliasberg Sr. was an American financier and numismatist. A native of Selma, Alabama, he is best known in the numismatic community for putting together the only complete collection of United States coins ever assembled, consisting of regular issue coins of every date, metal, denomination, and mint mark known to collectors at the time, with attention to coins in the best possible condition. He began the collection during the 1920s and finished the set by purchasing the last gold coin he needed in 1949 and the last silver coin he needed in 1950.
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