Excerpt: "Seven regular issue U.S. coin dates are unknown, although mint records report a mintage. Another coin is without a reported mintage, but private mint correspondence indicates one or more to have been struck. The possibility of an unexpected find of a great rarity is part of the enduring appeal of coin collecting. In 1978 a previously unknown 1870-S half dime was discovered in a junk box. No mint records known at that time indicated such a date to have been struck. Quite recently a new example of the extremely rare 1854-S half eagle came to light in California. The stories of the phantom eight are all different, making the possibility of a major find more likely for some than for others. They are described below in ascending date order."
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