History
In 1909, the US government wanted to honor President Abraham Lincoln and change the design of the cent coin. The Mint desired to change the design as it coincided with the Centennial of Lincoln’s birth and the 50th anniversary of the Indian Head Cent issuance.
Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens was commissioned to redesign the cent and other gold coins, but due to poor health, he only designed the $10.00 and $20.00 gold coins. The design of the new one cent coin was entrusted to Victor David Brenner, known for his Lincoln-related work.
Brenner completed his design for the Lincoln Wheat Penny by August 2, 1909, and the coins were released. The obverse featured a bust of Lincoln facing right, with the motto “IN GOD WE TRUST” above and the word “LIBERTY” behind him. The reverse depicted the words “ONE CENT” in the center, with “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” below. “E PLURIBUS UNUM” and two stalks of wheat adorned the upper periphery, giving the coin its “Wheaties” or “Wheat Cents” nickname. The coins became popular among the public.
However, Brenner’s initials (VDB) on the coin were criticized for their size and visibility. As a result, the US Mint temporarily halted production and released a new version without the initials, creating two varieties of the 1909 Lincoln Cent.
For more on the history of the Wheat Penny, check out our Lincoln Pennies guide.
Inaugural Year Varieties
Not only were the two above-named varieties struck during the first year, a grand total of six different varieties of 1909 Lincoln Cents were struck.
- 1909 VDB struck at the Philadelphia Mint;
- 1909 VDB with a Doubled Die Obverse struck at the Philadelphia Mint;
- 1909-S VDB struck at the San Francisco Mint;
- 1909 No VDB struck at the Philadelphia Mint;
- 1909-S No VDB struck at the San Francisco Mint
- 1909-S No VDB “S over Horizontal S” struck at the San Francisco Mint.
Collecting all varieties of 1909 Lincoln Wheat Pennies, in similar grades, is quite a challenge. In addition to these six varieties of Uncirculated cents, there are also two additional varieties of Proof coins dated 1909 – a 1909 with VDB in Proof and a 1909 No VDB in Proof.
The 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent is widely considered as “THE KEY DATE” of the entire Lincoln Cent series. With a mintage of a mere 484,000 coins, it is truly rare in all grades and the most expensive coin in the series. It is thought that 30,000 to 40,000 specimens in all grades survive but given that there are many more collectors of Lincoln cents than there are available coins, it is a coin that represents a ‘hole’ in many collectors’ albums.
Grading Lincoln Cents
At this point, it is important to discuss grading. Copper coins are unique in that not only do marks and other blemishes contribute to the lowering of a coin’s value, but for copper coins, the amount of natural red color still remaining on the coin also determines a coin’s rarity and value.
Grading Lincoln Cents, or any copper coin, is no different than grading any other series of coins, with one major exception. Color.
Uncirculated copper coins are graded by marks and imperfections and then the adjectival qualifier of Brown, Red-Brown, and Red may be added by the dealer or grading service to further identify the actual, natural state of preservation of the color of the coins.
The rarity, and thus the prices, will vary greatly, as will the numbers of specimens in these grades in NGC and PCGS populations.
The Scarce and Rare Dates
There are many common date Lincoln Wheat Pennies that were struck in the hundreds of millions of coins. These coins, especially those struck in the 1940s and 1950s, are often available in high grade, and in Red color, at a cost of but a few hundred dollars.
But that is not true for the scarce and rare date coins. These are the dates that are universally recognized as the KEY DATES in the Lincoln Wheat Cent series. These are the coins that all Lincoln Cent collectors need and want for their collections.
While most Lincoln Wheat Pennies were struck in the tens to hundreds of millions, these four coins listed below are truly exceptions to those mintage statistics.
Collectors usually try to complete collections of series of coins all in very similar states of preservation. That is sometimes easy to accomplish. However, when these key dates are considered, the prices, sometimes even in lower, circulated grades may be many hundreds or thousands of multiples higher than the values for the common date Wheat Cents.
The rare date coins and their mintages are:
| 1909-S VDB | Mintage | 484,000 |
| 1909-S | Mintage | 1,825,000 |
| 1914-D | Mintage | 1,193,000 |
| 1931-S | Mintage | 866,000 |
After these four key dates, not all of the remaining dates and mint marked coins are common. A much larger number of dates fall into the category of SEMI-KEY dates.
The Semi-Key dates and mintages are:
| 1909-VDB | Mintage | 27,995,000 |
| 1910-S | Mintage | 6,045,000 |
| 1911-S | Mintage | 4,026,000 |
| 1912-S | Mintage | 4,431,000 |
| 1913-S | Mintage | 6,101,000 |
| 1914-S | Mintage | 4,137,000 |
| 1915-S | Mintage | 4,833,000 |
| 1922-D | Mintage | 7,160,000 |
| 1924-D | Mintage | 2,520,000 |
| 1926-D | Mintage | 4,550,000 |
The Varieties and Error Coins
Minting a series of coins at multiple mints from 1909 through 1958 in quantities, up to hundreds of millions would, inevitably, result in overdates, repunched mintmarks, grease filled dies, wrong planchets and a variety of variety and error coins. Most collectors, dealers and investors consider these dates to be special additions to their collections. Some collectors avoid adding these special coins as they do not understand the value of these coins in relation to most normal dates.
The Variety and Error Coins are:
| 1909-VDB | Doubled Die Obverse |
| 1909-S | S Over Horizontal S |
| 1917 | Doubled Die Obverse |
| 1922 | No D- Strong Reverse |
| 1922 | Weak D- Weak Reverse |
| 1925-S | Doubled Die Obverse |
| 1925-S | S Over S Repunched Mintmark |
| 1929-S | S Over S Repunched Mintmark |
| 1930-S | S Over S Repunched Mintmark |
| 1935 | Doubled Die Obverse |
| 1936 | Doubled Die Obverse |
| 1941 | Doubled Die Obverse |
| 1943 | Struck in Bronze |
| 1943-D | Struck in Bronze |
| 1943-D | Doubled Mintmark |
| 1943-S | Struck in Bronze |
| 1944 | Struck in Steel |
| 1944-D | D Over S Mintmark |
| 1955 | Doubled Die Obverse |
| 1958 | Doubled Die Obverse |
Of all of these Variety and Error coins, the 1909-S Over Horizontal S has already been discussed. But the most popular and well-known of the remainder are the 1922 No D and 1922 Weak D, the 1943 Wheat Penny struck in Bronze (instead of Steel), the remaining 2 of the 1943 Bronze Cents struck in Bronze (instead of Steel), the 1944 Cent Struck in Steel) instead of Bronze) and, of course, the 1955 Doubled Die Obverse.
The Special Errors & Varieties
1922-D
In 1922, the only one cent coins made in the US that year were struck at the Denver Mint. No cents were struck in Philadelphia or at the San Francisco Mints. But the Denver Mint struck 7,160,000 cents dated 1922.
But the 1922-D Lincoln Cents created several varieties of scarce Lincoln Cents. Likely due to a grease-clogged mintmark, a number of those coins display no trace of a mintmark whatsoever. Those coins are called “1922 Plain.” There are also two varieties of “Weak D” coins. Some come with “Strong Reverse” and others come with a “Weak Reverse.”
1943 Bronze Cents
In 1943, the US Mint changed the composition of the Lincoln Pennies from bronze to zinc-coated steel. This was done to conserve copper and tin for weapons needed for World War II.
Over one billion steel cents were struck at the three minting facilities combined, so while these coins are unusual in appearance, they tend not to be valuable.
But a handful of coins were struck on the prior copper planchets as they may have been left in the coin hoppers that hold the large quantities of blank planchets. There are very small numbers of these off-metal error coins, and they must be authenticated by a major independent third-party grading service. They typically command hundreds of thousands of dollars at major auctions.
1955 Doubled Die Obverse
When a coin die is created, it is struck from a hub die that has an incuse image of the coin. In 1955 at the Philadelphia Mint, the dies became misaligned when striking the latest Lincoln Wheat Pennies.
This misalignment caused the blanks that were struck to have a doubled image on the obverse of the coin. It is believed that 20,000 to 24,000 examples were struck. Once discovered, Mint employees located a number of the specimens exhibiting that doubling. But the Mint determined that to stop any of these die errors from entering circulation, it would require the melting of millions of new Lincoln cents, which was more problematic than a small number of error coins being released.
A number of these error coins were found to have been distributed to the public in vending machines. A vending machine company in Massachusetts sold cigarettes in their machines for $0.23. The machines only accepted quarters so the company placed two new cents in the outer packaging and re-sealed the cigarette packs. Little did the company know that they were not only selling cigarettes – they were also providing the purchasers with two examples of one of the best known and rarest Lincoln Cent errors known.
Key Dates Estimated Pricing Chart
| Date/MM | Very Fine | About Unc. | Ch. Uncirculated |
| 1909-VDB | $20.00 | $30.00 | $80.00 |
| 1909-S VDB | $1,400.00 | $2,500.00 | $3,000.00 |
| 1909 | $10.0 | $25.00 | $45.00 |
| 1909-S | $275.00 | $335.00 | $400.00 |
| 1909-S/S | $250.00 | $400.00 | $650.00 |
| 1914-D | $525.00 | $1,850.00 | $3,500.00 |
| 1922- No D Strong Rev | $1,350.00 | $5,000.00 | $25,000.00 |
| 1922- No D Weak Rev | $375.00 | $750.00 | $3,000.00 |
| 1931-S | $100.00 | $150.00 | $225.00 |
| 1943 Bronze | $150,000.00 | $325,000.00 | — |
| 1955-55 DDO | $1,500.00 | $2,400.00 | $4,500.00 |
| Commons 1910s – 1930s | $0.15 | $0.75 | $4.00 |
| Commons 1940s – 1950s | $0.03 | $0.05 | $0.75 |
