1996-W

The 1996-W Roosevelt dime is the only dime ever struck at the West Point Mint and the only special-issue business strike in the entire Roosevelt series. Mintage finished at 1,457,000 pieces, the lowest non-error figure ever recorded for the design and roughly one-thousandth of the Philadelphia output that same year. Production was authorized to mark the 50th anniversary of the Roosevelt dime, which had debuted in 1946, and the entire run was distributed exclusively in the 1996 Uncirculated Mint Set. None of the coins were sold individually, no rolls or bags were released through bank channels, and no examples entered general circulation at face value. The W mintmark sat above the date in the position used by P and D on their respective issues, and the coin used the standard 2.268-gram, 17.91-millimeter copper-nickel-clad specification. The coins are business strikes, not proofs.

Authentication on the 1996-W rests on two principal diagnostics: the W mintmark must be sharp above the date and clearly distinct from the S used on San Francisco proof issues, and the coin should ideally remain inside its original 1996 Uncirculated Mint Set cellophane to support premium grade certification. Raw examples broken out of the original packaging routinely show handling marks and frequently fail to reach the MS67 and MS68 tier where PCGS and NGC concentrate the registry-grade premiums. The coin is regularly misidentified by casual sellers as a proof issue; PCGS and NGC both grade it as a Mint State business strike, and certification under the wrong designation is a routine consignment error. Weight on a calibrated scale should read 2.268 grams.

The 1996-W is the most collected single-date entry in the modern Roosevelt series and is required for any comprehensive date-and-mintmark set that pursues every facility. Distribution exclusively through the 1996 Mint Set means survivorship is high relative to the modest mintage; the entire 1.457-million population entered collector hands intact rather than being subject to circulation attrition. Base-grade Mint State examples remain readily available at modest premium levels because the original sets are still routinely broken up by dealers and resellers. The condition-rarity tier opens at MS67 and tightens sharply at MS68 where original-cellophane preservation becomes the practical requirement; PCGS and NGC population reports thin to registry-relevant levels at that point and four-figure pricing appears at public auction for the finest-known examples. The coin is also a useful narrative anchor in any display set that tracks anniversary commemoratives and special-issue Mint Set originals. For the broader context of the 1996 anniversary program and the modern West Point and San Francisco collector-issue era, see the Roosevelt Dime series history.