The amusement park dime
The
Philadelphia Mint had neglected to place a Mint mark on one or two dies. Coins with a noticeably strong strike
surfaced in Sandusky, Ohio. Many were unknowingly given out in change at the
city’s Cedar Point Amusement Park.
In
an article in the Central State Numismatic Society’s journal, The Centinel, Steven Bieda wrote, “In
March or April of 1982 the amusement park requested its seasonal allotment of
coins through Citizens Bank. The bank ordered the coinage from the Federal
Reserve Bank in Cleveland. As it turned out, the vast majority of the 1982
No-Mint Mark dimes were contained in this order.”
Less
desirable coins with a weak strike were released in Pittsburgh.
Bieda
noted that some think that all the No P dimes were struck from the same set of
dies, but that the pressure used to strike the coins was raised during the
production cycle, resulting in a sharper strike.
Strong-strike
1982 No P dimes catalog for $300 in Mint State 65 in Coin World’s Coin Values.
Weak-strike coins are not cataloged there, but tend to sell for less
than half the value of strong-strike coins.
Less,
once again, is more when it comes to numismatics.
Next:
Worthless cents and a partial country