2016-S Richard M. Nixon Proof

San Francisco struck 1,196,592 proof Richard M. Nixon dollars in 2016, the first of three designs in the year's Presidential Dollar Proof Set and the lowest production figure ever assigned to a single regular Presidential Dollar proof issue. The figure dropped below the 1,373,569 of each 2014 design and the 1,503,032 of each 2013 design, and well under the 1,438,858 of 2012 and 1,706,916 of 2011. Nixon leads the 2016 proof set in strict presidential succession ahead of Ford and Reagan, and the three-coin set was sold on its own or as part of the larger annual United States Mint Proof Set. Don Everhart designed and sculpted the obverse portrait of the 37th president; Everhart's Statue of Liberty reverse appears across every Presidential Dollar in the proof program.

San Francisco proof Presidential Dollars are struck twice on polished planchets with frosted dies, producing the strong contrast between mirrored fields and frosted devices known as Cameo. The standard expectation on a 2016-S Nixon is Deep Cameo, the strongest grade of contrast, abbreviated DCAM by PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and Ultra Cameo, abbreviated UCAM by NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company. Coins missing those designations are uncommon enough on this date that they trade at a small discount rather than a premium. The grade ceiling sits at PR70 DCAM, where microscopic field marks around Nixon's portrait, struck in slightly higher relief than the reverse, typically separate a 70 from a 69. Since proofs never circulated, the line is a question of surface fineness rather than design wear.

Collector use of this coin is straightforward. It fits a complete 40-coin Presidential Dollar proof run, a 2016-only three-coin proof set alongside Ford and Reagan, or a single-design Nixon three-coin set with the Philadelphia and Denver business strikes. Raw proofs from broken-up Mint sets remain inexpensive, and PR69 DCAM slabs trade for modest premiums; PR70 DCAM coins carry a step up but stay accessible compared with the 2007 first-year proofs that anchor the high end of the program. The under-1.2-million figure does add a small structural-scarcity argument that the higher-output mid-program proofs do not carry. For broader context on the 2012 transition to collector-only distribution, see the Presidential Dollar series history.