"wide rim" 1979 SBA

1907Quarter

does anyone know how many of this rarer 1979 type were minted?

supercoin

I've never seen any definitive number that I could believe.

Breen says about 160 million, or about 45% of the mintage, but I think that's highly unlikely given that they bring a significant premium even in typical condition. If they were that common the price support wouldn't be there.

My wild guess, based on my experience searching raw coins and trying to guess at how much cherry-picking has gone on (the variety has been known for quite a while), would be something like 5% of the mintage. Emphasis on wild guess.

Like many things surrounding the series, it's very under-researched. If you're looking for a book project, the SBA would make a good subject!

pontiacinf

WOW...at a 160 million theres still demand...wowsier

gmarguli

One dealer that I purchased some from told me that a couple years back he use to be able to buy as many as he wanted, but htey all of a sudden dried up. I wonder if it had to do with the mint finally getting rid of their stock of them?

I know several dealers that don't know the variety and you can still cherrypick it from them.

coppercoins

Just thought I'd stick this in for visual reference, for those who don't know what they look like.

supercoin

Bill, that's why I don't think there are 160 million. There's not that much demand, despite their universal appeal as one of the most beautiful coins ever minted.

coppercoins, great photo! Do you have a narrow rim for comparison?

And for anyone... if you're looking for one of these, "Near Date" is a more descriptive term and better for attribution. You want to look at the distance of the bottom of the date to the inside of the 11-sided rim.

"Wide Rim" is deceptive because the width of the rim shifts around with normal striking variation.

construct

Out of all the rolls of S.B.A.s I've searched in the past couple of years, I've found only two "near dates". It was so long before I found my first one that I was afraid that the variation was so subtle that I was missing them. Then when I finally found one, I saw that the difference is hard to miss. I think 45% is an awfully high guess. 5% may even be high.

MWallace

I have some information on my web site that came from the Mint concerning this.

The Susan B. Anthony Dollar

supercoin

Mike, great site, I've referred to it before but I have to search for it each time. I see you're moving it in December, is it going to have a "real" URL so it's easier to remember? You can get one at NameCheap.com for $9/yr, and I think you can redirect it to a home page with your ISP like you have now.

Back on topic, I see you're listing a 45% mintage figure too. What do you think of the accuracy of that based on your experience?

cladking

Some friends and I got together and counted dies once. We may or may
not have used a good sample but we came up with 4%. If Breen's numbers
are right then the mint is still sitting on more than 90% of them and they claim
all SBA's were issued at one time except for 9,000,000. These should have
been mostly 1980's.

dbldie55

Littleton was still buying these in bag quantity until 98 or 99 when they decided they needed to go into circulation so they could make some more. They may have been issued but they didn't go anywhere for a long time. I heard a lot of the later released coins were the near rim variety. Not sure if this is true, but it didn't seem to really affect price.

coppercoins

Unfortunately I have no photo of a narrow rim 79P SBA...in fact the photo I posted is the only photo I have ever taken of an SBA.

robertpr

Is this an MS only variety or does it also exist in PR?

sumnom

I have actually NEVER found a near date SBA. The one I do have I purchased from supercoin!

sumnom

I thought the near date variety was only from Philly.

construct

The 1979-P near date was a precursor to the 1980-P-D-S which are all near dates. Does anybody know why they decided to move the date?

mdwoods

I didn't think the date was moved, I thought the 11 sided inner rim was thickened to try to make it more distinguishable from the 25 cent pieces. mdwoods

coppercoins

And here I thought it had something to do with extending die life because the design fields had pointed corners (unusual) that were too close to the rim, circumstances given. Now that I think of it, that doesn't make as much sense as simply distinguishing them from quarters.

DRG

Robertpr; The Near Date is only a mint state designation for the 1979P SBA$.

If there are 160 million I don't know where they are. I searched thousands of 1979P's from both the 2,000 coin bags and 100 coin bags as well as mint sets and the special 3 coin sets. I found about 10 total in all the bags I searched. I now have 2 in 3 coin sets and have never found one in a regular mint set. I have probably found another 10 from circulation/post office machines. Very seldom do you see rolls of them for sale, and then in limited quantity. My experience is that they represent less then 1%. If they were hoarded, the person is holding pretty tight despite a good market to sell into.


1907Quarter: Nice Icon, I found it in my searches in a 2,000 coin bag. It is attributed as a "Copper Wash" error by PCGS.

MWallace

Thanks SuperCoin. I'll check out getting a "real" URL.

I don't think I've searched for these as much as others have to really be able to say with authority if the mintage figure is accurate or not. They did seem to become much more common as the Mint's stash dwindled.

United States Small Size Dollars and Related Items

cladking

MWallace: Welcome, hope you enjoy this place.

The '79 near date does not appear in regular 1979 mint sets or regular souvenir sets.
It does however appear in the three piece SBA souvenir set. It is quite scarce in this
set, however.

Rampage

I have one of the three coin SBA sets with the wide rim. I bought if off of eBay for something like $15.00 or so about 6 months back. I think I got it fairly cheap considering every other time I see it, it had a price of over $30.00. I have also searched hundred of mint sets and have NEVER found any in those either. Out of just rolls and circulation, I might have found a grand total of 12 or so. I say the mintage was around 2 to 4 percent.

For those who are interested, last night, I put a nice uncirculated roll of the Wide Rim/Near Date SBAs on eBay. All the coins have a good strike and nice fat, crispy, and bight red rims. Here is the link for that auction. I recently picked this roll up from a local dealer. Two weeks ago, I sold my last personal roll on eBay to a board member.

Rampage.

Richard.