2015-W Silver Proof

The 2015-W Roosevelt dime came out of West Point at 74,430 pieces, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the foundation that President Franklin D. Roosevelt established in 1938 to combat poliomyelitis. This is only the second Roosevelt dime ever struck at West Point, the first was the 1996-W, distributed in the 1996 Uncirculated Mint Set for the design's 50th anniversary. The 2015-W ships with the 2015-P Silver Reverse Proof Roosevelt dime and a 2015-W Silver Proof American Eagle in heritage packaging that anchors the set in the Roosevelt-March of Dimes connection. The W mintmark appears prominently above the date on a 90 percent silver, 10 percent copper planchet of the pre-1965 specification, and the W is the rarest mintmark on the Roosevelt denomination.

Authentication on the 2015-W silver proof rests on three diagnostics that must align together. The mintmark must read W above the date under 10x magnification with sharp serifs, not the D of Denver or the S of San Francisco. The finish is standard proof orientation: mirrored fields with frosted devices, the precise inverse of the 2015-P Silver Reverse Proof companion in the same set. The composition diagnostic is the third step: weight on a calibrated scale must read 2.50 grams against the standard clad 2.268 grams, surface tone shows the bright white-silver appearance of 90 percent silver, and the edge view displays the solid silver-color profile rather than the dark copper-core sandwich of a clad coin. Original March of Dimes Special Silver Set packaging is the cleanest provenance trail because the issue was distributed only in that vehicle and never appeared in any other Mint product.

The 2015-W silver proof trades as one of the modern Roosevelt program's flagship issues alongside the 1996-W and the companion 2015-P Silver Reverse Proof. The 74,430 set count is below every regular silver-proof Roosevelt mintage in the 1992-2018 program, and the W mintmark gives the issue structural rarity beyond the mintage figure alone. PR69 DCAM is available at premium pricing relative to standard silver proofs, and PR70 DCAM forms the meaningful condition-rarity step where PCGS and NGC populations thin to registry-relevant levels. The issue is required for any complete modern Roosevelt date set, for any mintmark-completion set covering the W, and for any commemorative-tied Roosevelt collection. Intact original March of Dimes Special Silver Set packaging carries a meaningful additional premium because the set context, Roosevelt + Roosevelt + Eagle, all silver, is the issue's complete numismatic story. For the March of Dimes 75th anniversary program and the West Point Roosevelt issue, see the Roosevelt Dime series history.