1976-S Eisenhower Dollar Clad Proof : A Collector’s Guide

By Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker for CoinWeek Notes …..
 

The 1976-S Bicentennial Eisenhower Dollar Clad Proof represents two of seven 1776-1976 Bicentennial Dollar coins the United States Mint struck in 1975 and ’76 as part of the official celebration of the nation’s 200th birthday. Other Ike dollars featuring Dennis R. Williams “Liberty Bell and Moon” reverse and the 1776-1976 dual date are the 1976 (Philadelphia) Type 1 and 2 coins and the 1976-D (Denver) Type 1 and 2 coins struck for circulation, and the 1976-S silver-clad Type 1 Proof and Type 1 Uncirculated coins sold as part of special Bicentennial three-coin Proof and Uncirculated sets.

The United States had not issued commemorative coins since 1954, and despite agitation for various commemorative coin projects over the years, successive presidential administrations and Congresses were wary of allocating Mint resources for such endeavors. This all changed with the nation’s 200th birthday celebration.

The story of our Bicentennial commemorative coinage begins in 1970 when the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission’s Coins and Medals Advisory Panel advocated for the production of circulating commemorative coins to mark the occasion. The Treasury Department was cool on the idea at first but came around after the Mint assured them that the production of special coins and medals would not interfere with its primary responsibility to produce coins for circulation. Furthermore, the Mint believed that it could produce enough coins with the new designs allowing millions of Americans to save them as souvenirs without causing undue hardships to merchants and banks.

Normally, U.S. coins bear the date of their issue. Bicentennial coins, however, carry the dual date of 1776 and 1976, which the Treasury decided in November 1972 to allow. Authorization to issue coins with commemorative designs came on October 18, 1973, when President Richard M. Nixon signed Senate Bill 1141 into law (Public Law 93-127 – PDF link). The law required that the Mint change the designs and inscriptions of the Washington Quarter, the Kennedy Half Dollar, and the Eisenhower Dollar and strike coins with designs “emblematic of the Bicentennial of the American Revolution.”

To determine the designs of the nation’s Bicentennial coinage, the Treasury Department held a design competition starting on October 23, 1973. Five judges were appointed to select winners from a nationwide competition, and each winner received $5,000 for their respective entries. The public got a first look at the new coin designs on March 7, 1974, when Mint Director Mary Brooks appeared on NBC’s Today show to unveil them.

How the 1976-S Eisenhower Dollar Clad Proof Was Sold

The 1976-S Eisenhower Dollar Clad Proof was sold as part of the 1975 and 1976 United States Mint Proof Sets.

1975 and 1976 Proof Sets include one Proof example of each coin the United States Mint struck that year. The sets were packaged in a hard hinged plastic shell that fit into a black paper sleeve or envelope.

As part of the national Bicentennial celebration, the Mint issued dual-dated 1776-1976 Bicentennial Washington Quarters, Kennedy Half Dollars, and Eisenhower Dollars starting July 4, 1975.

The sets proved wildly popular, as the Mint reported sales of 2,845,450 Proof Sets in 1975 and 4,149,730 Proof Sets in 1976. Both the 1975 and 1976 Proof Sets included each of the three Bicentennial coins carrying the dual date 1776-1976. Sets were sold for $7.00 each ($38.42 in 2024 inflation-adjusted dollars) and contained coins bearing a face value of $1.91.

While the Washington Quarters and Kennedy Half Dollars from both years’ sets are indistinguishable, the Eisenhower Dollars included in the 1975 sets and the 1976 sets are different in several ways.

The most noticeable difference is the lettering on the reverse. The Eisenhower Dollar from the 1975 Proof Set features flat, bold letters sans serifs, while the lettering on the reverse of the Ike from the 1976 Proof Set is thinner, with slight serifs. This lettering style is more in line with the font used on the standard Eisenhower dollars and was changed to match the font used on the coin’s obverse.

Other changes are subtler. The obverse dies that struck the Type 2 coins are in lower relief, with Eisenhower’s facial features softened. The United States Mint announced this design change in a November 28, 1975 press release. A benefit of the announcement, no doubt, was additional excitement surrounding the release of the 1976 Proof and Uncirculated Coin Sets.

The Type 1 Clad Proof was issued only in the 1975 Proof Set. The Type 2 Clad Proof was issued only in the 1976 Proof Set.

As for the July 2024 market value and availability of these Clad Proof Sets, both sets remain common and trade daily on sites like eBay for about $10 to $15 each. They can also be sourced from brick-and-mortar coin dealers.

Some coins have been cracked out over the years and placed into circulation, where they lose their intended pristine finish. Impaired Proofs are worth no more than face value. Pristine coins are sometimes cracked out of government packaging and submitted to leading grading services for encapsulation, where most grade no better than Proof 69 Deep Cameo/Ultra Cameo (PCGS and NGC use different terminology to describe the level of frost covering a Proof coin’s devices).

Coins graded Proof 69 and below will generally sell on eBay for $20 or less. This is lower than the current cost for encapsulation, which means that any new inventory added to the census will likely come from bulk submitters who get special pricing for large-volume orders.

A tiny fraction of the total number of coins submitted has earned the “perfect” grade of Proof 70. Much has happened in the market for both types.

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Market Data and Noteworthy Specimens

1776-1976-S Eisenhower Dollar Clad Proof, Type 1

As of February 3, 2025, PCGS has certified 41 1976-S Eisenhower Dollar Clad Proof, Type 1 coins in PR70DCAM. From that total, two have been added since July 2024. NGC, however, has yet to approve a single coin as a “perfect” Proof. NGC’s apparent unwillingness to assign the 70 grade has had a similar effect on its submission numbers as PCGS’ past unwillingness to assign the perfect grade to certain bullion-strike American Silver Eagles – which is to say that NGC has ceded major market share to PCGS.

The first PCGS PR70DCAM crossed the auction block in July 2011, setting a record price of $25,300 – an astonishing sum given the fact that two of the then-leading Set Registry participants privately communicated to me their skepticism about the coin and whether PCGS had diluted the market for Ike Dollar Proofs by grading most of the coins PR69DCAM – a practice that was not applied generally to other period Proofs. At the time, Proof 70s for various dates were being added to the census slowly but steadily.

Four years later, the PCGS population had risen to four coins in PR70DCAM, and two came up for auction. The first appeared at GreatCollections in February 2015. GreatCollections does not permit the republication of its auction data except in particular circumstances, but it is impossible to communicate the contours of this aspect of the Eisenhower Dollar Clad Proof market without describing three transactions.

The first involved PCGS PR70DCAM #31681227. This coin sold for a GreatCollections record $9,625 on February 22, 2015. At the time of the sale, this was a pop-four coin.

A month later, the second of four then-graded PR70DCAMs (#31798469) sold at Heritage for $5,170. Coin #31681227 has appeared twice since. Heritage sold in January 2016 for $7,637.50, and GreatCollections again handled it in April 2023, bringing in $5,461.88. The increase in the 70 population led to a 61% decrease in value from pop one to pop four based on the GreatCollections’ coin’s first offering, an 80% decrease in value based on the Heritage pop four offering a month later, rebounding to a 78.4% decrease in 2023, when the PCGS pops were well over 30.

The third coin sold at GreatCollections that ties into our market analysis is PCGS #45832696. This example sold for $8,718 on September 4, 2022, part of a trend of rising Type 1 Clad Proof prices. Two years later, it appeared at Heritage as part of the Stephenville Collection, bringing $6,600. This is three days after Heritage sold another PCGS PR70DCAM for $2,520. We are deeply skeptical that a $4,000 price variance exists for Proof 70 coins sold three days apart. That said, it is clear that most of the action for this date has shifted to GreatCollections.

Proof 70 Type 1 coins remain considerably scarcer in 70 than the 1776-1976-S Clad Proof, Type 2. Note also that the frost quality on Deep Cameo/Ultra Cameo coins varies greatly.

Top Population: PCGS PR70DCAM (41, 2/2025), NGC PF69CAM (597, 2/2025), and CAC PR69DCAM (0:1 stickered:graded, 2/2025).

• PCCGS PR70DCAM #83456289: Heritage Auctions, December 13, 2024, Lot 3368 – $7,200.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #45832696: GreatCollections, September 4, 2022, Lot 1217569 – $8,718.75; “The Stephenville Collection,” Heritage Auctions, May 13, 2024, Lot 93596 – $6,600.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #31910325: “The Palm Beach Gardens Collection,” Heritage Auctions, May 10, 2024, Lot 4918 – $2,520.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #31681227: GreatCollections, February 22, 2015, Lot 257122- $9,625. Pop four when offered; Heritage Auctions, January 8, 2016, Lot 6235 – $7,637.50; “The PCS Collection of Ike Dollars,” GreatCollections, April 9, 2023, Lot 1243408 – $5,461.88. Eisenhower novelty insert.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #31798469: Heritage Auctions, April 23, 2015, Lot 5192 – $5,170. Pop four when offered.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #03824641: Heritage Auctions, July 8, 2011, Lot 4293 – $25,300. Top pop, pop one when offered.

1776-1976-S Eisenhower Dollar Clad Proof, Type 2

PCGS has certified four times as many Type 2 Proof 70s as Type 1s. This impacts not only the frequency in which we see examples appear at auction but also the prices such pieces command. Four years after Heritage garnered a record price for the top pop, pop one Type 1 Proof, a GreatCollections PCGS PR70DCAM Type 2 (#30779397) saw 10 bidders push the coin to a record price of $22,550. We are uncertain of the 70 population at the time of this sale, but we do know that a string of three PR70DCAM coins came out of a bulk submission of 120 coins (#31804366 – #31804486) comprised of 1976-S Bicentennial Quarters and Ike Dollars. When the first of these were offered at a July 2015 Heritage sale, the catalog put the PCGS population at five coins. That coin sold for $4,935 – a 78% decrease. Two months later, the second of the three coins sold for the same amount, even though the certified population had increased more than threefold in that short time.

Prices continued to decline as the population rose. Since July 2024, PCGS has added as many coins to its PR70DCAM census as NGC has graded Proof 69s (five). In February 2025, we’d expect examples to sell for about $1,250 to $1,500, with the occasional example bagging $2,000 or more on eBay.

Top Population: PCGS PR70DCAM (120, 7/2024), NGC PF69CAM (1,012, 2/2025), and CAC PR68DCAM (0:2; stickered:graded, 2/2025).

• PCGS PR70DCAM #80617044: Heritage Auctions, November 6, 2024, Lot 21712 – $1,200.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #47017590: eBay, May 16, 2024 – $2,399.95.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #45619458: Heritage Auctions, May 13, 2024, Lot 93597 – $1,440.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #46944865: eBay, May 5, 2024 – $2,599.95.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #44880194: Heritage Auctions, January 24, 2024, Lot 27644 – $1,320; Heritage Auctions, May 15, 2024, Lot 25701 – $1,050.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #46944863: Heritage Auctions, November 19, 2023, Lot 7212 – $1,560.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #46135007: Heritage Auctions, September 17, 2023, Lot 7184 – $1,380.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #32675339: Heritage Auctions, January 25, 2023, Lot 27864 – $2,280; Heritage Auctions, May 7, 2023, Lot 7425 – $1,860. David Hall signature insert.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #40392292: Heritage Auctions, August 26, 2022, Lot 4752 – $3,120.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #41034148: “The Schwenk Family Collection,” Heritage Auctions, May 6, 2022, Lot 4496 – $3,360.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #39123528: Heritage Auctions, January 13, 2022, Lot 3636 – $3,360.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #41099200: Heritage Auctions, April 25, 2021, Lot 7311 – $4,320.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #84336722: Heritage Auctions, December 8, 2017, Lot 3992 – $2,400.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #32278994: Heritage Auctions, April 5, 2017, Lot 16520 – $2,585.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #84247544: Heritage Auctions, September 8, 2017, Lot 4778 – $2,880.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #32507427: Heritage Auctions, January 8, 2016, Lot 6236 – $3,055.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #31804484: Heritage Auctions, September 17, 2015, Lot 4130 – $4,935.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #31804485: Heritage Auctions, July 9, 2015, Lot 3247 – $4,935.
• PCGS PR70DCAM #30779397: GreatCollections, November 2, 2014, Lot 224973 – $22,550.

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Design

Obverse:

Chief Engraver Frank Gasparro’s portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower (as president); Eisenhower facing to the left. Gasparro’s initials FG appear raised in the bust truncation. Beneath Eisenhower’s chin to the left, is the motto IN GOD WE TRUST. The word LIBERTY wraps around the top of the coin in the space between the rim and the top of Eisenhower’s head. The dual date 1776-1976 wraps around the bottom of the design. The S mintmark for San Francisco is located below Eisenhower’s bust and above the year 1976.

Reverse:

The winning Bicentennial Eisenhower Dollar design was by Dennis R. Williams, an art student at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio. At 22 years old, Williams was the youngest artist to have a design featured on circulating U.S. coinage. His design consists of a fairly realistic and static Liberty Bell in front of a half-cratered Moon – the Moon reminding the viewer of the monumentally historic Moon landings of then-recent vintage. The motto E PLURIBUS UNUM is below the Moon on the right of the coin. The designer’s initials DRM are nestled under the Liberty Bell’s rim. The legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA runs clockwise along the top rim of the coin, and the denomination ONE DOLLAR runs counterclockwise along the bottom. Two five-pointed stars, one on each side, divide the legend and the denomination.

Edge:

The edge of the 1976-S Eisenhower Dollar Clad Proof is reeded.

Coin Specifications

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