1949-S

The 1949-S Roosevelt dime carries the lowest mintage of any business strike between 1946 and 1954, with 13,510,000 pieces produced at San Francisco (only the 1955-P at 12,450,181 dips below this figure across the entire silver era) in a year when all three facilities pulled back from the heavy postwar output of 1946 through 1948. The figure is roughly 38% of San Francisco's 1948-S output and stands as the defining Semi-Key of the Roosevelt silver era, commonly identified as the condition-rare date that completes a meaningful Mint State set. The "S" mintmark sits on the reverse to the left of the torch base, the branch-mint placement John R. Sinnock had engraved into the master dies before the series went to press in 1946. The obverse carries Roosevelt's left-facing portrait with IN GOD WE TRUST and LIBERTY, and Sinnock's "JS" initials at the bust truncation; the reverse pairs a vertical torch with an olive branch and an oak branch. No proofs were struck in 1949 because the Mint's proof program, suspended in 1942 for wartime conservation, did not resume until the following year.

The 1949-S follows the silver-era specifications: 2.5 grams, 17.9 mm diameter, 90% silver and 10% copper, with a reeded edge. Authentication on a circulation San Francisco strike begins with the weight check at roughly 2.45 to 2.55 grams in any reasonably preserved example, followed by careful examination of the "S" mintmark for clean punching without remnant of another letter beneath it. Added-mintmark fakes built from 1949 Philadelphia base coins are the standard altered-piece concern on this date because the Semi-Key premium incentivizes manipulation; a TPG slab from PCGS or NGC closes the door on that vector. Strike quality on the 1949-S is typically strong, but the Full Bands (FB) designation, applied to coins showing fully separated horizontal lines on the torch's central band, is meaningfully scarcer on this date than on neighbors at both ends of the run because die maintenance was inconsistent through the year and Mint State survival has skewed toward grades below MS-66 FB.

The 1949-S is classified Regular in the Roosevelt series on the current site catalog, though the date is widely treated as a Semi-Key in collector practice and trades at meaningful step-ups above the 1946-1948 silver issues. PCGS and NGC populations thin sharply at MS-67 FB and above, where the 1949-S becomes a genuine condition rarity for registry-set builders and a recurring focus of auction interest. For broader context, see the Roosevelt Dime series history.