DALLAS, TX.- Bidding already is up to $63,000 for a 1971-dated U.S. silver dollar prototype that was discovered by a sharp-eyed collector in California and now is being offered for the first time in a public auction by Dallas, Texas-based Heritage Auctions (www.HA.com). The superb condition coin depicting President Dwight D. Eisenhower on the front side and a symbolic eagle landing on the moon on the back is slightly different than 6.8 million other “Ike” dollars struck at the San Francisco Mint in 1971.

“This is an extremely rare discovery of an early design stage for the first year of the Ike dollars that were made from 1971 to 1978. There isn’t even an example of this prototype in the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian,” said Jim Halperin, co-chairman of Heritage Auctions which is offering the coin in an auction online and in Dallas on January 14, 2022 in conjunction with the Florida United Numismatists convention.

Price guides indicate that a normal, 40 percent silver 1971 San Francisco Mint Ike dollar in this condition might sell for $400. Advance bidding online for the prototype already is at $63,000.

Halperin described the main differences in design between the prototype and other Ike dollars as “an unfinished moon” on the back of the coin. Some details of craters and rocks are missing in the prototype’s design. The coin’s surface also has near mirror-like reflectivity often found on specially-made proof versions.

“This was the first of only three known prototype Ike dollars found in the half-century since the coins were made. It was discovered by a collector at a coin show in California in 2008; another was found at an Alabama pawn shop in 2010; and a third was offered on eBay in 2013,” explained Halperin.

The coin has been authenticated and certified by independent experts at Professional Coin Grading Service and graded Specimen 67 (on the numismatic coin grading scale of 1 to 70). The full auction description is online here.

The first U.S. silver dollars were struck in 1794.