Opportunistic sellers are finding ready buyers from misinformed collectors that believe they’re obtaining a famous rarity when they’re in fact purchasing a frequent coin.
A range of listings are emerging on online promoting platforms touting”1975 Roosevelt Dime No Mint Mark” with starting bids into three figures or even higher. Sometimes, the name even includes”Unusual” or”Very Unusual,” and that is where it gets really shady.
The confusion which contributes novice collectors into thinking they’re on course to obtain a spoonful includes the absence of comprehension the coin they search is really the Proof 1975-S Roosevelt, No 1 Pen, rather than some routine, circulated 10-cent coin which has been created to be invested.
The Mint struck 2.8 million Proof 1975-S Roosevelt dimes to add from the Proof collections of the year. They were supposed to possess an S Mint markers. Only two of these dimes are found with no Mint mark, also among these coins offered in a Stack’s Bowers Galleries Rarities Night market in Rosemont, Illinois, on Aug. 18, 2011.
The occurrence of one of those coins was found in 1977 when a group was delivered to Coin World’s Collectors Clearinghouse at July of the year. The proprietor then submitted the collections into the American Numismatic Association Certification Service, which resisted the dimes as every being a Proof attack with no Mint mark. The next coin was also possessed by precisely the exact same person, and the two places were sold in separate transactions to Illinois coin trader Fred J. Vollmer, who obtained them in 1978 and 1979.
The first group, which comprised the coin filed to Coin World, was offered to an Ohio collector. The second group contained the Proof 1975-S Roosevelt, No S Champion which was sold in the 2011 Stack’s Bowers auction.
Since only two examples of this Proof 1975-S Roosevelt, No S dime happen to be authenticated thus far, most consider that Mint inspectors found the error that resulted in the lack of a Mint mark on the obverse die, and they ceased all those sets with a mistake dime from being published.
Not one of the coins currently being provided in the internet sales has been rated or authenticated. Many are pictured at a normal cardboard holder or revealed raw. Few provide any kind of description beyond the name, and several are clearly circulated coins according to their own images.
It’s a classic instance of”Buyer Beware.” It’s incumbent upon buyers to be aware of what they’re getting. Additional words such as”rare” or even”very rare” are misleading to the point of becoming false advertisements, as a one-in-585-million coin is precisely the reverse. A top starting bid may increase the false allure, as a typical current coin of face value shouldn’t bring a three-figure yield.
The matter is far from fresh, since it’s the origin of a few of the most often asked questions in Coin World. Readers often mistake premium excellent flow strikes or coins broken from Uncirculated places to be Proof coins. To get an internet auction buyer, purchasing the coin before studying it signifies gross overpayment for pocket change.