Susan B. Anthony dollar value: which ones are worth more

NGC's price guide puts a worn Susan B. Anthony dollar of any date at $1.05 to $1.25 (rows updated May 1, 2022), barely over face; a worn 1979-P Wide Rim is the exception, at $5 to $9 (June 26, 2019). NGC (Numismatic Guaranty Company, which grades and prices US coins) covers all four years the coin was struck: 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1999.

Only a few kinds beat that. Start with the date and the small letter above Anthony's right shoulder: that letter is the mint mark, P for Philadelphia, D for Denver, S for San Francisco. The 1979-P Wide Rim, also called the Near Date, has its date almost against the rim. The 1981 coins were sold only in the Mint's sets for collectors, so unworn ones carry a little more. The 1979-S and 1981-S Type 2 proofs are mirror-finished collector coins with a clearer S mint mark. And a few dates in MS67 or higher (MS means mint state: no wear at all, on a scale from 60 to 70) have sold for hundreds or thousands of dollars at auction, while a Narrow Rim MS67 sold for $65 in 2016; the sales table below has each one.

Grades are a 1 to 70 score from a grading service; higher means less wear.

Source: NGC Coin Explorer price guide, with the update date NGC prints on each row (2019 or 2022); we read it on October 30, 2026. These are old guide figures, not today's market and not offers. AU58 is the top of the worn grades, with only a trace of rub; PF69 is a proof graded 69 out of 70, and Ultra Cameo is NGC's label for strong contrast between the portrait and the mirror field.

1979-P Wide Rim or Narrow Rim: how to tell

Only Philadelphia's 1979 coins come in two versions. Neither NGC nor PCGS splits the 1979-D or the 1979-S, so if your coin has a D or an S above Anthony's right shoulder, this section is not about it. (Where mint marks sit on US coins shows the spot on other denominations.)

The test is the gap between the date and the rim. PCGS's Jaime Hernandez writes that on the ordinary Narrow Rim coin the rim is "separated from the date", while on the Wide Rim the date is "very close to the rim of the coin, and almost touching" (PCGS CoinFacts, in a copy archived on June 22, 2024). NGC calls the same coin the Near Date and says the Mint changed the stamping tool (the die) to give it a fuller border.

The order of events comes from Coin World's William T. Gibbs, writing in 2018: after a large number of dollars had been struck ahead of release, the Mint widened the rim and Philadelphia struck more. PCGS adds that the wide design carried on for every later date. Nobody has published how many of Philadelphia's 360,222,000 coins dated 1979 are Wide Rims.

NGC price guide, both columns last updated June 26, 2019, read October 30, 2026. Wide Rims that NGC marks with a + sit higher: $70 at MS65+, $300 at MS66+, $2,500 at MS67+. NGC's census (its count of coins it has graded) showed 2,689 Wide Rims and 2,314 Narrow Rims on October 30, 2026. PCGS estimates about 20,000 Wide Rims still exist in all grades, an expert guess rather than a count.

How many Susan B. Anthony dollars were made

Per-mint figures from PCGS CoinFacts (archived copies), matched by NGC where NGC prints one; each year adds up exactly to the totals in the Red Book (the standard US coin guide) as Wikipedia quotes them, read October 30, 2026.

The 1981 coins are the ones that list higher. NGC's history of the series says that in 1981 the Mint struck only enough dollars for its yearly Uncirculated sets for collectors, and then stopped. None of them was released into change. Unworn, they list a little higher than the 1979 and 1980 coins: NGC lists a 1981-P at $3 in MS60 and $20 in MS65, against $1.50 and $10 for a 1980-P (May 1, 2022).

The 1999 coins were a stopgap before the Sacagawea dollar, struck at Philadelphia and Denver only. Worn, they price the same as every other date.

Proofs were made separately: about 3.7 million for 1979-S and about 4 million for 1981-S (Coin World, 2014), 3,554,806 for 1980-S and about 750,000 for 1999-P (NGC).

Susan B. Anthony proofs and the Type 2 S

A proof is a collector coin with a mirror-like background, made for the Mint's proof sets and never put into circulation. The 1979 to 1981 proofs carry an S; the 1999 proofs carry a P.

A 1979-S proof has one of two S marks. Type 1 is the older, filled-in S that proofs had carried since 1974, the one collectors nicknamed the "blob S". Type 2 is a cleaner S with a rounded outline, and it is the scarcer one: about 450,000 of roughly 3.7 million. Every 1980-S, and most 1981-S, carry that cleaner S, and for 1981 it is called Type 1. Late in 1981 the Mint used a flatter S with slightly bulbous ends: that is the 1981-S Type 2, about 350,000 of roughly 4 million. These counts are estimates by Coin World's Scott Schechter from 2014; there is no official split. NGC says the original S punch wore out and a sharper one replaced it.

NGC price guide, every proof row last updated June 26, 2019; NGC census of October 30, 2026; both read that day. A coin sent in twice is counted twice in a census.

The 1979 Susan B. Anthony "blob" mint mark

The blob mint mark people search for is, in most cases, the filled S on a 1979-S Type 1 proof. That is the common version. The scarce 1979-S is the clear-S Type 2.

NGC's variety catalog lists exactly six Anthony dollar varieties: the Narrow Rim and Wide Rim 1979-P, and Type 1 and Type 2 for both 1979-S and 1981-S proofs. Nothing in it is a blob, a filled mint mark or a smudged one.

A P or D that looks smudged on an ordinary circulation coin usually has a duller cause. Coin World's Mike Diamond wrote in 2013 that the most common struck-through error comes from dies clogged with lubricant, dirt and metal dust, which collectors call a "grease strike" or "filled die"; the detail strikes up poorly or not at all. That explains a mushy letter, but it does not make the coin a listed variety. Errors versus damage has more on telling the two apart.

Susan B. Anthony dollar value by grade

NGC price guide, last updated May 1, 2022; NGC census of October 30, 2026; both read that day. The 1979-P is in the Wide Rim table above. The 1981-S is the odd one: NGC has graded 13 at MS67 (one of them MS67+, the coin that sold for $21,600) and none higher, and its guide jumps from $325 at MS66 to $3,750 at MS67. Coin grading basics explains what separates an MS65 from an MS67.

The biggest Susan B. Anthony dollar sales

These are prices coins actually sold for at auction (Heritage Auctions unless noted). Every one is a top-grade coin that a grading service rated 64 to 68; a coin from a drawer or a pocket does not sell like these.

From NGC Auction Central and PCGS CoinFacts' auction records (archived copies), read October 30, 2026; Coin World reported the April 2017 sale too. Auction Central shows only the newest 25 sales per coin, so this is not an all-time list. The February 2016 Wide Rim is filed as MS67, but a PCGS text describes a February 2016 sale near $6,500 of its single finest MS67+, and we could not settle which. The 1981-S lot page itself would not load for us; the sale rests on the PCGS record and Heritage's lot address.

Two Wide Rim MS67s sold in 2026 for $945.50 and $823.50, well under the $2,820 that the same grade brought twice in 2016. PCGS's own record for the Wide Rim, $6,995 for an MS67+ on December 30, 2021, was an eBay sale. NGC also lists a few four- and five-figure sales under plain 1979-P and 1999-P whose lot titles we could not read. We left them out because they are far above every comparable sale.

Telling the dollar from a quarter: size, weight and metal

A Susan B. Anthony dollar has no silver in it: it is copper-nickel clad (outer layers of copper-nickel over a copper core) on every date, proofs included, even though some NGC listings are titled "Silver Dollar".

The coin was mistaken for a quarter from the day it came out. NGC's history says that should have been predicted, given the same metal and fairly close sizes; people called it the "Susan B. Agony" and the "Carter quarter". NGC's specifications give the measurements to check:

The eleven-sided inner border was meant to help visually impaired people tell the coin apart by sight and by feel (Wikipedia, citing a 1978 House report).

Grade, rim width and the shape of a small S are all things a picture can mislead on. Anything that looks like a Wide Rim, a Type 2 proof or a top-grade coin is worth checking against the rim and S descriptions above, then handing to a coin dealer or submitting to PCGS or NGC for grading. Leave it uncleaned: cleaning lowers the price. Selling comes after that: how to sell a coin.

We make Buck, so read this paragraph with that in mind. Photograph one coin, the front and then the back, with the app on iPhone or Android; it names the type and gives a price-guide estimate, not a bid to buy the coin. It cannot grade the coin, and telling a Wide Rim from a Narrow Rim, or a Type 1 S from a Type 2, from a phone photo is unsure, so treat any answer on those as a reason to look closer. Its estimate is for the type as a whole, so it can sit well away from the dated sales above, which are single coins in single grades.

Sources, all read on October 30, 2026 unless noted: NGC Coin Explorer (series history, specifications, price guide rows dated 2019 and 2022, census); NGC VarietyPlus (the six varieties); NGC Auction Central and PCGS CoinFacts' auction records (the sales); PCGS CoinFacts in archived copies (mintages, the Wide Rim description, the survival estimate); Coin World (Gibbs 2018 on the Wide Rim, Schechter 2014 on the S mint marks and proof mintages, Diamond 2013 on filled dies); the US Mint (the quarter's weight, read October 20, 2026); and Wikipedia (Red Book totals, the 1999 reissue, the eleven-sided border).