how rare is a 1979 silver dollar

[OEmerson]

Ah, the great 1979 silver dollar! It's so exceptionally rare that, well, it doesn't actually exist. It's a classic case of mistaken identity. The dollar coin minted in 1979 was the Susan B. Anthony dollar, and despite its silvery appearance, it's made of a humble copper-nickel blend. So, if you're holding one, you're not holding silver, but you are holding a piece of history that was famously confused for a quarter.

Now, as for its rarity, let's just say the U.S. Mint was not shy about production. They unleashed an absolute tidal wave of these coins, minting over 750 million of them in 1979 alone. That makes your average 1979 dollar about as rare as a Tuesday. Most of them are floating around in circulation or hiding in drawers, and their value is typically... one dollar.

However, there is a little twist for the eagle-eyed collector! Among the coins minted in Philadelphia, there are two versions: a "Narrow Rim" and a "Wide Rim." The Wide Rim variety, where the date is noticeably closer to the edge of the coin, is the scarcer version of the bunch. While the common Narrow Rim coin is everywhere, finding a Wide Rim is a genuinely neat discovery that's worth a few bucks more than face value. So, your 1979 dollar is almost certainly not rare, but it just might be the slightly-more-interesting cousin in a very, very large family.