1979-P Wide Rim

The 1979-P Wide Rim is the principal Variety of the Susan B. Anthony series, identified by a date positioned tight against an enlarged inner border. The Type 1 Narrow Rim, or Far Date, accounts for the vast majority of Philadelphia's 360,222,000-piece inaugural-year output. Mid-year, the Mint modified the obverse hub to strengthen a rim that had been striking up unevenly, and the change shifted the relationship between the date and the border. On the resulting Type 2 Wide Rim, also called Near Date, the top of the 9 nearly touches the inner border and the rim itself reads as visibly thicker. Both configurations entered circulation through the same Federal Reserve channels, but the Wide Rim accounts for only a small fraction of total production and survived in concentration mostly through Mint-sealed bags and original rolls that collectors broke down after the variety was publicized.

For collectors, two diagnostics matter when authenticating a Wide Rim claim. First, sight the date against the inner border at five to ten power magnification: on a genuine Wide Rim, the top of the 9 sits within roughly half a millimeter of the border, while a Narrow Rim shows a clearly resolvable gap of about one millimeter. Second, the rim itself reads as broader on the Wide Rim, since the same hub change that pulled the date inward also widened the rim beading; a worn or doctored coin where the date appears closer because of post-mint damage will not show the matching wider rim. PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and NGC both list the variety in their slabs, and for any meaningful spend the certified route is the only safe route. Cleaned or harshly handled examples turn up regularly because the variety carries a premium across all grades.

The Wide Rim is a popular series Variety pickup, condition-scarce in MS65 and above, and the only Susan B. Anthony issue outside the rare proof types where a meaningful premium attaches at every grade. Pricing has held steady across the past decade rather than tracking modern-coin speculation. For the design-change context and the broader story of the dollar's failed launch, see the Susan B. Anthony Dollar series history.