The 1967 Roosevelt Dime: A Record Mintage Hiding a Rare Gem
Share
If you were to guess which Roosevelt dime is the most common, the 1967 would be the undisputed champion. With a mintage that dwarfs any other issue, it's a coin that has passed through millions of hands and filled countless change jars. Yet, for the discerning collector, this common piece of pocket change presents a fascinating paradox: while the coins themselves are everywhere, finding a truly high-quality, well-struck example is a surprisingly difficult task.
A Response to a National Coin Shortage
The story of the 1967 dime is rooted in the turbulent numismatic environment of the mid-1960s. Rising silver prices had led the public to hoard dimes, quarters, and half dollars, creating a severe national coin shortage. The government and the U.S. Mint placed part of the blame on coin collectors, believing their activities were exacerbating the problem.
In response, Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1965. This legislation fundamentally changed U.S. coinage by removing silver from the dime and quarter and reducing it in the half dollar. To further discourage collecting and ensure the new coins circulated, the Mint also temporarily suspended the use of mintmarks from 1965 to 1967.
Without mintmarks, the production figures from the Philadelphia and Denver Mints were combined into a single, massive total. The goal was to flood the economy with so many new clad coins that hoarding would become pointless. This effort peaked in 1967, when the Mint struck an astounding 2,244,007,320 Roosevelt dimes—a record that remains untouched more than half a century later.
The Challenge of Finding a Gem
When production is pushed to such extreme levels, quality inevitably suffers. The dies used to strike the 1967 dimes were used extensively, long past the point where they could produce sharp, detailed impressions. As a result, the vast majority of these coins exhibit weak strikes, mushy details, and numerous surface abrasions from being bundled and shipped in massive quantities.
At the time, most serious collectors had little interest in these new "clad" coins with their astronomical mintages and lack of identifying mintmarks. The hobby was in a slump, and very few people thought to set aside pristine, uncirculated rolls of the 1967 dime for the future. This contemporary indifference is a key reason why superb examples are so scarce today.
Decades later, the consequences of that mass production are clear. Numismatists who search through original bank-wrapped rolls of 1967 dimes often report finding not a single coin that would qualify as a true "gem." While the coin may only be worth its face value in circulated condition, examples graded at the highest levels by services like PCGS or NGC can be quite valuable due to their rarity.
The 1967 Roosevelt dime teaches a valuable lesson: mintage numbers don't always tell the whole story. It is a testament to how a coin can be incredibly common in one sense and genuinely rare in another. For collectors who appreciate condition and quality, the hunt for a perfect 1967 dime is a challenge that turns the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Protect your collection with Maker Minted storage, 3D-printed in the USA: