Mint mark varieties on some 1979-S and 1981-S coins have been sneered at as trivial and too hard to discern, but collectors can't disdain the prices.
The "Clear S" varieties for the Anthony dollars from the San Francisco Mint for those years are now in standard guides and regarded by many as essential to a complete set. They are also the most expensive coins in that short-lived series.
Proof coins of other denominations for 1979 with "Clear S" also carry premiums.
Until the mid-1980s for Proof and commemorative coins, and until the early 1990s for circulation coins, the Mint marks were added to individual working dies. By 1979, the punch used for the S Mint mark was becoming quite worn.
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CLEAR S Mint mark on a 1979-S Anthony dollar.
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Nevertheless, this punch was used for most Proof coins that year and apparently all 109,576,000 S-Mint circulation strikes of the new Anthony dollar.
This style of Mint mark is called "filled" in A Guide Book of United States Coins (the "Red Book"), "blurry" in Coin World Comprehensive Catalog & Encyclopedia of United States Coins and "worn" in two books on dollar coins by Q. David Bowers, who adds "somewhat filled and indistinct at the inside of the top and bottom curves." Walter Breen, in his Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, calls this "Mint mark with straight sides." It has also been called a "blob" Mint mark. In dealer listings, it is commonly given the shorthand designation "Type 1."
"Worn" may be the most straightforward of these terms. "Filled" is confusing, because a die that is obstructed by grease or similar material and actually fails to strike up some detail on a finished coin is referred to as "filled."
Sometime late in the year a new punch, almost universally referred to as "Clear S," was used on Proof coin dies. Bowers adds "with interior spaces of S open," and Breen calls this the sans serif "Block S." Dealers often list it as "Type 2."
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WORN S on a 1981-S Anthony dollar is actually from the same punch as the 1979-S Clear S, but deteriorated.
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The changeover was not made at the same time for all denominations. Evidently, different quantities of already prepared dies were on hand for different denominations. It may be that some dollar coin dies with the old-style S Mint mark, originally prepared for circulation strikes, were used for Proof strikings. (Any internal instructions if that was the case could have been among casualties in a mass purging of records late in then Mint Director Stella Hackel's time in office). At any rate, the dollar has proved the most elusive of Proof 1979-S coins with Clear S.
Breen says the new Mint mark was used on dollars only for Proofs made in November and December 1979. He quotes numismatic writer Alan Herbert putting the number at 425,000, out of 2,735,031 Proof dollars for the year.
Bowers cites the Breen-Herbert number and gives his own estimate, roughly the same as Breen and Herbert, that 1979 Clear S dollars constituted 15 to 20 percent of all Proof 1979-S Anthony dollars. The Coin World book says the Clear S is "[F]ound on approximately one coin out of nine."
In the Nov. 4, 1981, issue of Coin World, a "Georgia attorney and numismatist" named Arnold Husser said he had received information under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act in which the Treasury Department supplied precise numbers struck, by denomination, of coins with the new-style Mint mark:
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CLEAR S shown on a 1981-S Anthony dollar was the final refinement of this period.
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| Cents | 1,454,024 |
| 5-cent coins | 1,285,764 |
| Dimes | 1,018,798 |
| Quarter dollars | 947,000 |
| Half dollars | 838,300 |
| Dollars | 517,144 |
Husser referred to these mintages as "Type II" without vouchsafing how he had defined any differences to Treasury officials. The Mint had kept count of significant die varieties before; e.g., 1909 Lincoln cents with V.D.B. reverse and the 1913 Indian Head 5-cent coins with Bison on Mound or Bison on Plain designs. The article by Husser appears to be the only source, however, purporting that the Mint was keeping track of the 1979 S Mint mark varieties.
Dealers were not quick to promote the varieties. Advertisements offering whole "Type 2" Proof sets began appearing in early 1981. Because of the differing mintages, Husser indicated, original Mint-sealed sets in which all six coins have the Clear S Mint mark were fewer even than the least mintage by denomination, 517,144, for the dollar. In fact, he estimated the number of such intact original sets at 50,000 to 100,000.
"I have also found that people who constantly belittle the 1979 Type II Proof sets are those who either did not have them in stock or who are bitter because they sold theirs at the normal Proof set price, and so on," he wrote.
Within months, with the mid-1982 publication of the 1983-dated edition, the "Red Book" listed not only the complete sets but also the varieties by denomination. The Clear S dollar alone was valued at $125 in Proof 65, vs. $12.50 for the "Filled S."
The $125 valuation for the 1979-S Anthony, Clear S dollar in Proof 65 slipped to $100 in the 1985 "Red Book," to $85 in 1990, to $70 in 1992 and to $60 in 1994. It has since recovered somewhat. In the latest Coin World "Trends" guide, a Proof 65 deep cameo rated a $90 valuation vs. $10 for the Worn S variety.
Other "Trends" valuations for 1979-S Clear S coins, Proof 65, with valuations for Worn S counterparts in parentheses, were: cents, $10 ($7); 5-cent coins, $2.50 ($2); dimes, $1.50 ($1); quarter dollars, $8 ($7); and half dollars, $15 ($8).
Although the differential was great only for the dollar, it was quite a difference for varieties of which Bowers had this to say: "These Mint mark differences are rather trivial in my opinion, and if they appeared on any earlier series - such as on a 19th-century American dollar - few would pay any attention to them. As it is, differences among modern coins are unusual, and they are listed in the Guide Book of United States Coins, the most popular guide as to what to collect."
Some Clear S dollars are not so clear after all. Breen noted "lighter and heavier impressions," with the illustration for the latter showing a letter that appeared almost as closed as the old-style S. In fact, Husser wrote, "Coins bearing the closed S Mint mark could well be considered a 'poor man's Type II.' In the future, for all we know, it may become known as such in the numismatic world." That would add about as much confusion as some dealers did in 1960 when they marketed relatively weakly struck Large Date cents of the year as "Medium Date."
Further complicating matters for the would-be sorter, Breen says that for the Clear S, "Repunched Mint marks are known."
Nor did the Clear S stay clear for long. By 1981, it had become worn in turn and most S Mint marks looked like a figure 8, in Breen's description.
Late in the year, the punch again was replaced and a new, clearer letter appeared on small numbers of Proofs for the year.
Thus, what was the Type 2, Clear S of 1979 became the Type 1, "Filled S" of 1981, and a third style of Mint mark became the Type 2 of 1981: in Bowers' words, "a very new style, very open in the loops" and "distinctly different" from either preceding punch.
Confusion is best avoided by referring to S Mint marks of either year as either "worn" or "clear."
The Red Book values a complete six-coin 1981-S Clear S Proof set at $325 in Proof 65 vs. $10 for a Worn ("Filled") S set. It gives separate Proof 65 values of $50 for a Clear S cent vs. $2 for a Worn S and $180 for a Clear S dollar vs. $8.50 for a Worn S. The dollar is listed separately in Coin World "Trends" at $175 for Proof 65 deep cameo.
After 1981, the S Mint mark was used only on some U.S. Mint Proof, commemorative and bullion coins. Beginning in 1985, the Mint mark was freshly applied at master die or model stage, obviating any carryover of a broken punch.
