1976 No S, Type 2, Silver Proof

The 1976 No S Type 2 Silver is the legendary missing-mintmark error of the Eisenhower Bicentennial proof program, struck at San Francisco on dies that lacked the S mintmark. All Eisenhower proofs were produced at San Francisco, so the absence of the mintmark is a die-preparation error rather than a Philadelphia issue. The error was discovered years after the 1975-1976 production run, and surviving examples number in the single digits. The Type 2 designation refers to the same thin-lettering Bicentennial reverse used on the standard 1976-S Silver Proof; the No S Type 2 carries the standard high-relief Earth and the Williams Liberty Bell over moon reverse, dual-dated 1776-1976 like every Bicentennial Eisenhower.

Authentication of a No S Type 2 Silver Proof claim turns on a single diagnostic. Examine the obverse below the truncation of Eisenhower's bust at high magnification: a genuine No S example shows a smooth, unbroken surface where the standard 1976-S Silver Proof carries a sharp S mintmark. PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and NGC both authenticate the variety, and slabbed examples are the only safe path for any meaningful spend; raw claims are nearly always misattributions of clad No S errors, which are a separate variety, or of toned standard 1976-S Silver Proofs where the mintmark is obscured rather than absent. The 40 percent silver composition and 24.59-gram weight confirm a silver versus clad attribution.

The 1976 No S Type 2 Silver Proof is one of the trophy modern U.S. errors and a true single-digit-population issue. Auction records run into six figures for the few confirmed examples that have traded publicly. The rarity context lives in the narrative rather than in the standard catalog tier, and pricing has tracked the broader strength of major modern errors across the past two decades. For the Bicentennial program history and the broader proof error context, see the Eisenhower Dollar series history.