“No S” Cent Discovery

The thrill of the hunt motivates many collectors, and a recent discovery reminded CoinHunters Auction House and Coin Shoppe owner Dave Coulby of Edwardsville, Illinois, about the joy of finding numismatic treasure. His recent hire, a new collector named Jarod Mackeen, discovered two 1990-S “No S” proof sets in a group of five sets. “When I came back from my weekly buy-trip, Jarod was as nervous as a little puppy,” says Coulby. “What in the world did he do, I thought? Well…he did what every numismatist dreams of….he found treasure!” As of this writing, the discovery has yet to be graded.

In the mid-1980s, the U.S. Mint stopped adding mintmarks to individual proof dies by hand. Instead, it punched mintmarks into a master die for the San Fransisco Mint, thus eliminating the possibility of a proof coin leaving the facility without a mintmark. However, in the case of the 1990-S “No S” proof cents, an employee took a die intended to be a business strike die and processed it as a proof die. The die struck several hundred cents before the mint discovered the error and destroyed 145 “No S” cents. So far, Professional Coin Grading Service has certified 236 examples, and Numismatic Guaranty Corporation has certified 100.