1917 Lincoln Wheat Cent
Circulation strike struck at the Philadelphia Mint · 196,429,785 made
- Mintage
- 196,429,785
- Metal
- 95% copper, 5% tin and zinc
- Weight
- 3.11 g
- Diameter
- 19.05 mm
Original illustration. Tap to flip. Not a photograph of the actual coin.
Face value · Metal value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is a 1917 Lincoln Wheat Cent worth?
Even worn Wheat cents usually sell for a little more than face, because so many people collect them by date. Bright uncirculated coins with red color bring more.
What would make yours worth more:
- Uncirculated condition with full original luster
- Full red copper color (labeled RD) rather than brown
- A die variety or minting error
For market prices, check recent sold results for certified coins in the same grade.
Quick answers
- Is the 1917 Lincoln Wheat Cent rare?
- Not by date: 196 million were struck. A sharp uncirculated coin or a known variety is what makes one special.
- Where is the mint mark on a 1917 Lincoln Wheat Cent?
- On the obverse, directly below the date. Philadelphia cents have no mint mark.
- Which Philadelphia dates near 1917 are scarcer?
- The 1915 at 29,092,120, the 1921 at 39,157,000, the 1912 at 68,153,060, plus 3 more. So the 1917 is one of the easier dates of its stretch.
- How many 1917 Lincoln Wheat Cent coins were made?
- 196,429,785.
What to check on your 1917
- There's no mint mark on this one, so the date and condition are what matter.
- Judge the grade under good light. Check the parallel lines in the wheat stalks, Lincoln's cheek and jaw, plus the hair above the ear. Uncirculated cents are also graded by color (RD, RB, BN) and full red coins are worth multiples of brown ones.
The story of the 1917
Philadelphia made 196,429,785 in 1917, up from 132 million in 1916. In 1918 the figure was 288 million.
It was the big producer of the year, well ahead of 1917-S (33 million) and 1917-D (55 million).
Across Philadelphia's 50 Lincoln Wheat Cent issues, the hardest to find is the 1932 with 9,062,000 made. The 1917 is one of the easier ones. Within the 1910s it's 27th smallest of 29, between the 1910 (147 million) and the 1918 (288 million).
VDB, new branch mints and wartime demand (1909 to 1917)
Victor David Brenner's Lincoln cent was released on August 2, 1909, the centennial year of Lincoln's birth. Within days the Mint removed his initials, VDB, from the reverse after complaints that they were too prominent. San Francisco struck only 484,000 cents with the initials, creating the 1909-S VDB, the most famous key in the series. The 1909-S without initials is also scarce at 1.8 million.
Denver began striking cents in 1911. The 1914-D, with 1.2 million made, is another key and is often counterfeited by altering the date or adding a mint mark. Matte proofs were made from 1909 to 1916. Demand rose sharply with World War I. Output in 1917 passed 196 million in Philadelphia, a year that also includes a doubled die obverse. Survivors from this era are usually brown and worn, with full red coins scarce for the branch mints.
Elsewhere in US coinage in 1917
The Standing Liberty quarter was redesigned to cover Liberty with chain mail. The mint mark on the Walking Liberty half dollar moved from the obverse to the reverse.
How to recognize it
Abraham Lincoln faces right with IN GOD WE TRUST above, LIBERTY to the left and the date to the right. The mint mark, when there is one, sits below the date. The reverse has two ears of wheat framing ONE CENT and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, with E PLURIBUS UNUM across the top. The designer's initials V.D.B. appear on the reverse of some 1909 coins and on Lincoln's shoulder from 1918.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Series | Lincoln Wheat Cent (1909–1958) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Mint | Philadelphia Mint |
| Mint mark | None |
| Strike type | Circulation strike |
| Mintage | 196,429,785 |
| Face value | 1¢ |
| Composition | 95% copper, 5% tin and zinc (bronze) |
| Weight | 3.11 grams |
| Diameter | 19.05 mm |
| Edge | Plain |
| Designer | Victor David Brenner |
Other 1917 Lincoln Wheat Cent issues
| Coin | Mintage | Type | Silver |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1917 Lincoln Wheat Cent | 196,429,785 | Circulation strike | – |
| 1917 Lincoln Wheat Cent Proof (Struck illegally, 1 known to exist) | – | Variety | – |
| 1917-D Lincoln Wheat Cent | 55,120,000 | Circulation strike | – |
| 1917-S Lincoln Wheat Cent | 32,620,000 | Circulation strike | – |
Mintage: Lincoln cent mintage figures (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from US Mint records and the Guide Book of United States Coins. How we build these pages.