Rare 1894-S Barber Dime Sells for $1,250,500 at Stack’s Bowers

One of the most famous rarities in American coin collecting has changed hands for $1,250,500. An 1894-S Barber dime graded Proof-63 by PCGS and approved by CAC sold in Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ Summer 2026 Global Showcase Auction. The coin was offered as Lot 2056 during the September 1 Rarities Night session.

Only 24 1894-S dimes were struck at the San Francisco Mint, and Stack’s Bowers currently traces just nine surviving examples. That tiny population has made the issue one of the best-known rarities in U.S. numismatics, frequently mentioned alongside coins such as the 1804 silver dollar and 1913 Liberty Head nickel.

The particular coin that sold for $1.25 million has a story stretching back nearly 70 years and is closely connected to legendary numismatist Q. David Bowers. In November 1957, a 19-year-old Bowers purchased the dime for $4,750 when it was offered in Stack’s Empire Collection auction. The price attracted national attention at a time when spending nearly $5,000 on a dime seemed extraordinary to the general public.

The purchase turned Bowers into something of a national celebrity. According to Stack’s Bowers, newspapers across the country picked up the story, Bowers received thousands of letters and he was invited to appear on NBC’s Today Show. His planned short appearance stretched to nearly an hour after another guest was delayed. Bowers soon sold the dime to Ambassador R. Henry Norweb and his wife, Emery May Norweb, for $6,000. It remained in the renowned Norweb Collection until 1987, when it returned to auction and sold for $77,000.

Three years later it appeared again in Stack’s sale of the Allen F. Lovejoy Reference Collection of United States Dimes, bringing $93,500. After passing through dealer Jeffrey Bernberg and RARCOA, it was acquired in 1991 by Pittsburgh coin dealer and collector Charles Litman. The coin then essentially disappeared from the auction market for more than three decades.

It resurfaced this year as one of the highlights of Litman’s collection, which Stack’s Bowers described as being off the market for roughly a quarter century. The firm identified the piece as the famed Norweb specimen and made it one of the centerpieces of its 2026 Rarities Night auction. Its $1,250,500 result represents a dramatic increase from its previous public appearances. The same dime went from $4,750 in 1957 to $77,000 in 1987, $93,500 in 1990 and now more than $1.25 million in 2026.

The 1894-S itself has been surrounded by stories almost since the coins were made. Mint records show just 24 were produced, an extraordinarily small number for a regular U.S. coin. Modern research cited by Stack’s Bowers points to reduced demand for new coinage during the economic depression following the Panic of 1893 as the reason San Francisco ultimately struck so few dimes that year.