Collectable Coins Right Under Our Noses

[WoodenJefferson]

 

 

Up until 1980, the Roosevelt dimes produced at the Philadelphia Mint

never carried a “P” mint mark. Starting that year, a small letter

"P" was placed by the Mother Mint on dimes, just above the date and just a scant

two years later, a major error occurred when the mint mark

was omitted from a small number of dimes made at that mint.

 

It has been theorized that an obverse working die never received the “P” mint mark

that was normally punched into the working die and these “No P” dimes escaped

detection and were subsequently released into circulation.

 

How many out of the 519,475,000 dimes minted at Philadelphia do not have the mint mark?

I don’t think anyone really answer that question, but a modern die can last for a couple of

hundred thousand coins before it needs to be removed from the presses.

 

 

 

Note: Up until 1990, the Mints applied their own mint mark designations directly onto the

business strike working dies. In the following subsequent years, the mint mark was

incorporated directly onto the master dies eliminating RPM’s, tilted, inverted, overs…etc.

 

What are they worth?

 

$30 for a VG-8 up to $100 for AU-58

$300 can be had for a MS-65 example.

 

1982 no P (Heritage)

 

1982 with P

 

Please feel free to add onto this post with other collectable coins that might be found in your pocket.

 

[RWB]

I suspect they will corrode if left in that position.

[bsshog40]

Great info there Woody! Now you have everyone rechecking there change jars for the 82' no P roosies.

[cladking]

Modern dies can last for well over a million strikes and dime dies routinely last half a million and nearly that long in 1982.

 

The mint mever admitted having a record of the production of this coin but it might have just been lost. Only an estimated 10,000 coins were made but there are no examples that exhibit any sort of die failure. Curiously these come with weak and strong strikes and the weak strikes were produced first. It's thought that the dies were readjusted in a quad press when a different set of dies was replaced. Most of the weak strikes were released in Pittsburg and a few near Baltimore and all of the strong strikes were released in Sandusky, Ohio where they were first discovered. These were returned to the banks from their theme park at the end of the season.

 

I have some doubt about the 10,000 estimate and suspect it's higher based on some examples I've seen with die wear. It's possible that these were caught and destroyed but the first and last strikes eluded the destruction.

 

The real irony is that no one cared about the '82-P dime with the mint mark so no one set them aside. Now, in very high grade it's worth more than the no mint mark.