An extremely rare 1894-S dime sold for $1,320,000 on August 16 at the Stack's Bowers Galleries Official Auction at the 2019 American Numismatic Association’s World's Fair of Money.
The 1894-S Barber dime is considered No. 6 on the list of all-time US collectible coins. Of 24 coins likely struck that year in San Francisco only nine are known to survive. Certified as a Branch Mint Proof-63 by PCGS, this was the first time a coin of this rare series had come to auction in over three years.
A Legend for Over 100 Years
First reported in an article in the August 25, 1895 edition of The San Francisco Call, this coin has been the stuff of legends ever since. Through the decades, several stories have been put forward as to the dime’s history, not the least of which is that one was given to a young girl by her father as a gift to hold until her old age, at which time he told her it would be quite valuable.
Father knew best, as time has proven, but the 15-year-old was more interested in instant gratification, so she used it to buy a dish of ice cream (a dime in 1894 would be equivalent to about $2.90 in today’s money, roughly what a single scoop of Baskin-Robbins goes for today).
Nobody knows what happened to that dime; we presume it’s one of the 15 that disappeared.
Why Only 24?
2.5 million dimes were minted in San Francisco in 1893 and there was every reason to believe a similar number would be struck the following year. New 1894 dies were made in Philadelphia and shipped to the San Francisco Mint, ready to go into production for the next year’s run. But the recession now known as The Panic of 1893 hit hard and demand for dimes fell drastically. The coins planned for San Francisco minting were dropped from the schedule and the dies were supposedly set aside.
So how did the 1894-S dimes get made? Theories abound, but one is a simple matter of accounting.
At the time, dimes were 90% silver and the Treasury demanded a strict accounting of gold and silver bullion. When the 1893 tally was made for San Francisco, it was a few ounces short of silver, so the mint struck some extra dimes make up the difference…using the new 1894 dies.
Realizing that the coins would be rarities, as one story goes, a mint official held back a few for himself and collector friends, one of which may have been spent on a dish of ice cream.
Who Really Knows?
The practice of striking a few coins off the books was fairly common in the less-regulated mints of the 19th century, so there could be other explanations. For an in-depth look at the mystery of the 24 dimes, see this article on the Stack’s Bowers website.
As for us, we’re wondering what that young lady’s heirs would do with 440,000 scoops of ice cream.
Dimes are just one of many collectible currencies offered by The Great American Coin Company® including U.S. coins and paper currency as well as currency from around the world.
Coin and currency collecting can be a fascinating and rewarding hobby. Browse our collections and you may just find yourself hooked.
