Wheat pennies: which dates to look for
Guide
Sending photos doesn't commit you to sell
Is anything in this jar or folder of old pennies scarce?
Most wheat pennies are common dates.
A few are scarce, and each comes down to a small detail: the letter under the date, initials on the back, or doubled lettering.
1. What a wheat penny is
A wheat penny is a Lincoln cent dated 1909 to 1958. The back shows the words ONE CENT between two ears of wheat.
In 1959 the Lincoln Memorial replaced the wheat. A penny with a building on the back is a later coin.
A steel penny sticks to a magnet.
2. Date and mintmark
The date is on the front. Look under the date. A small letter there is the mintmark, which shows where the penny was made.
- D means Denver.
- S means San Francisco.
- No letter means Philadelphia.
3. The dates collectors look for
Check loose pennies and folders against this list.
- 1909-S with V.D.B. An S under the date, and the designer's initials V.D.B. at the bottom of the back. The initials were removed later in 1909. A 1909-S without them is scarce too, and a 1909 V.D.B. with no S is far more common.
- 1914-D. A D under the date. About 1.2 million were made, a low number for a penny.
- 1922 with no D. Only the Denver Mint made pennies in 1922, so every one should have a D. Some show no D at all, because the dies that stamped them were worn or over-polished.
- 1931-S. An S under the date. Fewer than a million were made.
- 1955 doubled die. The date, LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST on the front all look plainly doubled. It has no mintmark.
4. The steel pennies of 1943
In 1943, pennies were made of zinc-coated steel because copper was needed during World War II. They are gray, and they are not silver. A steel penny sticks to a magnet.
A copper-colored 1943 penny that sticks to a magnet is a steel penny coated with copper.
If a copper-colored 1943 penny does not stick, photograph both sides. The Mint made a small number in copper by mistake, and others are 1945, 1948 or 1949 pennies with the date altered.
5. The rest of the jar or folder
In most years the mints made tens of millions of pennies or more, which is why most dates are common. Common dates can still be collectible.
Copies and altered coins exist for every date on the list above. Many were bought in good faith.
Before you send photos:
- Keep rolls, jars and folders together.
- Don't clean anything. Cleaning can't be undone.
- Leave pennies in their folders and photograph them that way. Don't open rolls; photograph the ends.
- For a loose penny with a date on the list, photograph both sides and take a close-up of the date and mintmark. For one in a folder, leave it there and take a close-up of the front.
Guides
- Inherited coins or paper money? What to do first
- Old U.S. paper money: what collectors look for
- How to tell if a coin is silver
- Why you shouldn't clean your coins
- How to photograph coins and paper money with your phone
- Morgan and Peace silver dollars: how to tell which you have
- How to read the label on a graded coin
Ready to show us what you have?
We're based in Rockmart, Georgia, and we look at every collection in person before making any offer.