The 1926-S is much rarer than a generous mintage of 2,041,500 pieces might imply. Most examples were never released into commercial channels, and remained in storage until destroyed on government order in 1937. Most of the 1,500 or so Mint State survivors represent coins that were used in international commerce and were subsequently repatriated from foreign bank hoards beginning in the 1950s.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the May 2010 Nashville Auction, where it realized $31,625.