Lincoln wheat penny value

A few errors are worth far more still: a 1922 cent with no D, a 1955 cent with a doubled date, and the 1943 and 1944 wartime metal mistakes.

How to tell

The Lincoln wheat cent has Lincoln on the front and two ears of wheat on the back. It was minted from 1909 to 1958. Check the coin in this order:

1. Turn it over. Two wheat ears means it belongs on this page. A Lincoln Memorial on the back is a later cent, covered in the Lincoln Memorial penny guide.
2. Read the date.
3. Look for a mint mark letter: S is San Francisco, D is Denver, and no mint mark means Philadelphia.
4. On a 1909 cent, look at the back for the designer's initials, V.D.B.
5. On a 1943 or 1944 cent, hold a magnet to it.
6. On a 1955 cent, look at the date and the lettering on the front. On a 1922 cent, look under the date for the D.

The key dates

The 1909-S VDB is the most valuable date. Only 484,000 were made at San Francisco. The plain 1909-S, without the initials, is much more common but still worth far more than a common year: $64 to $117 worn. A 1909 VDB from Philadelphia and a plain 1909 are worth far less. See the 1909 guide.

The 1914-D is a hard date to find, with only 1,193,000 made, and many people collect it. A worn one is worth $69 to $631. It is often faked, so check the mint mark closely. More in the 1914 guide.

The 1931-S had the lowest mintage of the regular wheat cents after the 1909-S VDB. A worn one is worth $27 to $72. See the 1931 guide.

Several other S and D dates from the 1910s and 1920s are scarce and worth more than face in any condition, such as the 1910-S at $6.83 to $40 and the 1912-S at $10 to $55, both worn.

The errors

• 1922 "no D". A worn Denver die left no D under the date. Only the version with a strong, clear back, from one particular pair of dies, is the valuable one, at $255 to $872. Many fakes have had the D removed, so a bare spot alone proves nothing. A normal 1922-D is worth $8 to $39. See the 1922 guide.
• 1955 doubled die. The date and the lettering LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST are strongly doubled, and you can see it without a magnifier. It is worth $858 to $2,464 in lightly worn to never used (uncirculated) condition. See the 1955 guide.
• 1943 copper. In 1943 the cent was made of steel to save copper. A few were struck by mistake on leftover copper blanks. A real one is brown, does not stick to a magnet, and is worth $100,000 or more. Most are fakes: coated steel cents, or 1948 cents with the date changed.
• 1944 steel. The reverse mistake: a few 1944 cents were struck on leftover zinc-coated steel blanks from 1943. They are silver-gray, stick to a magnet, and are worth $75,000 or more.
• 1944-D, D over S. The D mint mark is stamped over an S. Price guides list this variety, so look closely at a 1944-D.

What common years are worth

Wheat cents from 1934 through 1958 are usually worth little more than their copper, which is worth $0.04 at the day's prices. A worn 1941 is worth $0.03 to $0.14. Cents from 1909 to 1933 tend to be worth more, especially with an S or D mint mark. For the whole run of Lincoln cents, see the Lincoln cent values.

Condition

A worn coin is worth less than a sharp one, so a coin from change usually sits near the low end of its range. Do not clean a coin. Cleaning lowers its value, even when the coin looks nicer afterward. If you think you have a key date or an error, have it looked at by a professional grading service or a coin dealer before you sell.