September 4th, 2026
Twenty-four coins were struck. Nine are known to survive. On September 1, one of them sold for $1,250,500, and it still came in under estimate.
The coin is an 1894-S Barber dime, produced at the San Francisco Mint in June 1894 during an economic downturn following the Panic of 1893, when demand for new currency had dropped sharply. It's long been ranked among the rarest coins in American numismatics, in the same company as the 1804 silver dollar and the 1913 Liberty Head nickel.
A Coin With Its Own Origin Story
This particular example carries a well-documented history of its own. Numismatist Q. David Bowers bought it in 1957, at age 19, for $4,750, a purchase that helped launch what became a prominent career in the rare-coin world. He later sold it; the coin resurfaced at auction for $77,000 in 1987 and $93,500 in 1990, then went quiet for 36 years before returning to the block this year with an estimate of $1.5 million.
It ultimately sold for $1,250,500, about 260 times what a teenage Bowers paid for it nearly seven decades ago, and roughly in line with recent 1894-S sales: only five other examples have come to auction since 2005, fetching between $1.3 million and $2.16 million.
Why So Few Survive
The San Francisco Mint struck just 24 of these dimes, designed by Charles Barber, the Mint's chief engraver. Today only nine are confirmed to exist, though numismatists believe others may be out there, unidentified or unaccounted for. That combination, a deliberately tiny original mintage and decades of attrition since, is what keeps every recorded sale a genuine event rather than a routine one.
The Formula Holds Again
Documented ownership stretching back nearly 70 years. Independent auction records rather than a seller's claim. Genuine scarcity within a mintage that was minuscule even in 1894. It's the same combination that's driven headline results across this market all year, this time in a single silver coin small enough to hold in one hand.