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Rare dime bought by Ohio family and hidden for decades sells for over half a million dollars
An extraordinarily rare dime whose whereabouts had remained a mystery since the late 1970s has sold for just over $500,000.
The coin, which was struck by the U.S. Mint in San Francisco in 1975, depicts President Franklin D. Roosevelt and is one of just two known to exist without its distinctive “S” mint mark.
Three sisters from Ohio inherited the dime after the death of their brother, who had kept it in a bank vault for more than 40 years.
The coin sold for $506,250 in an online auction that concluded Sunday, according to Ian Russell, president of GreatCollections, an auction house based in Irvine, California. The auction house said there were 212 bids placed on the coin.
The only other known example of the “1975 ‘no S’ proof dime” sold at a 2019 auction for $456,000. Shortly after that, the coin sold for $516,000 to a Roosevelt Dime collector, who currently has the only complete collection of the series, the auction house said.
The mint in San Francisco made more than 2.8 million special uncirculated “proof” sets in 1975 that featured six coins and were sold for $7. Collectors a few years later discovered that two dimes from the set were missing the mint mark.
/ AP
Russell said the sisters from Ohio, who wanted to remain anonymous, told him that they inherited one of those two dimes but that their brother and mother bought the first error coin discovered in 1978 for $18,200, which would amount to roughly $90,000 today. Their parents, who operated a dairy farm, saw the coin as a financial safety net.
When Russell told one of the sisters just a few years ago about the coin’s potential value, he said she remarked “is that really possible?”
While there is a chance more examples of the rare dime are out there, they would only be found among the 1975 “proof” sets and not in anyone’s pocket change, Russell said.
Still, he said he expected the latest discovery to set off a lot of searching.
A stowaway somehow made it onto a Delta Air Lines flight Tuesday from New York City to Paris without a boarding pass, officials confirmed.
The woman boarded Delta Flight No. 264 from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, CBS News learned. She was discovered while the plane was in midair and was taken into custody in Paris.
In a social media video posted by a passenger, the captain can be heard over the plane’s intercom — after the plane landed in Paris — telling flyers that “we’re just waiting for the police to come on board, they may be here now, and they’ve directed us to keep everyone on the airplane until we sort out the extra passenger that’s on the plane.”
The circumstances of how she was found were unclear, and her name was not immediately released.
A Transportation Security Administration source told CBS News that the woman went through an advanced imaging technology body scanner at a checkpoint in JFK Airport after somehow bypassing the document and ID check portion of the TSA process.
In a statement provided to CBS News, a TSA spokesperson said that it could “confirm that an individual without a boarding pass completed the airport security screening without any prohibited items. The individual bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations and was able to board the aircraft.”
In order to be present at an airline departure gate for boarding, an individual must have cleared a TSA security checkpoint.
After getting through TSA security, it’s unclear how exactly the woman boarded the Boeing 767-400ER without showing a boarding pass or passport to Delta staff.
“Nothing is of greater importance than matters of safety and security,” Delta said in a statement. “That’s why Delta is conducting an exhaustive investigation of what may have occurred and will work collaboratively with other aviation stakeholders and law enforcement to that end.”
French law enforcement and the TSA are separately investigating. The woman could be subject to a civil penalty or fine for bypassing the document check process.
There is new technology known as e-gates that are being rolled out at airports which involves using biometrics to check travel documents as part of the international departure boarding process. Such technology would have caught the stowaway.
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