Wheat Penny Value Chart: Every Date From 1909 to 1958

The dates to check first

These are the lowest-mintage wheat pennies struck for circulation. If you're sorting a jar or an inherited collection, pull these dates out before anything else and check the mint mark carefully.

1. 1909-S VDB Lincoln Wheat Cent: 484,000 made. The 1909-S VDB is the most famous key date in American coin collecting: only 484,000 were struck before the designer's initials were removed.
2. 1931-S Lincoln Wheat Cent: 866,000 made. The 1931-S has the lowest mintage of any regular Lincoln cent after 1909, struck during the Depression.
3. 1914-D Lincoln Wheat Cent: 1,193,000 made. The 1914-D is one of the two great Lincoln cent keys.
4. 1909-S Lincoln Wheat Cent: 1,825,000 made.
5. 1924-D Lincoln Wheat Cent: 2,520,000 made.
6. 1911-S Lincoln Wheat Cent: 4,026,000 made.

Every wheat penny by date and mint

Click any date for its full page: how many were made, the mint mark location, varieties and what to check. Mint marks matter: the same year can be common from one mint and scarce from another.

The series in 5 stages

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.

Initials return and the 1922 plain (1918 to 1929)

In 1918 Brenner's initials returned, this time tiny on the truncation of Lincoln's shoulder, where they stayed for the rest of the series. Production stayed high after the war, but a recession cut 1921 output. In 1922 only Denver struck cents. Worn and filled dies at Denver produced coins with no visible mint mark, the 1922 Plain. Only one die pair shows a strong reverse and no trace of the D. That is the variety collectors want.

The Depression low and the late 1930s boom (1930 to 1942)

The Depression cut cent demand sharply. Production fell to 19 million in Philadelphia in 1931. San Francisco struck just 866,000, creating the 1931-S, a key date that many people saved at the time, so it is more available in uncirculated grades than its mintage suggests. Output stayed low in 1932 and 1933, with no San Francisco cents in either year. Recovery began in 1934, when Philadelphia struck 219 million.

Steel cents and shell case brass (1943 to 1946)

Copper was needed for the war effort, so in 1943 the Mint struck cents on zinc coated steel. They are lighter at 2.70 grams, stick to a magnet and were often confused with dimes. The zinc coating wore quickly and the steel rusted, so most survivors are dull gray or spotted. A few bronze cents dated 1943 were struck by mistake on leftover planchets and rank among the most famous errors, though most offered are plated or altered fakes.

Postwar bronze, the 1955 doubled die and the final wheat cents (1947 to 1958)

Bronze returned in 1947 and proof sets resumed in 1950. Postwar output kept climbing until Denver exceeded one billion cents for the first time in 1956. San Francisco struck its last wheat cents in 1955, ending S mint mark cents until 1968, which led many people to hoard the 1955-S.

Decade by decade

• 1900s: 4 issues, 103 million coins. Scarcest: 1909-S VDB (484,000).
• 1910s: 29 issues, 2 billion coins. Scarcest: 1914-D (1,193,000).
• 1920s: 26 issues, 1.7 billion coins. Scarcest: 1924-D (2,520,000).
• 1930s: 27 issues, 2.2 billion coins. Scarcest: 1931-S (866,000).
• 1940s: 30 issues, 10.6 billion coins. Scarcest: 1949-S (64,290,000).
• 1950s: 24 issues, 9.2 billion coins. Scarcest: 1955-S (44,610,000).

Where to find the mint mark

• 1909 to 1958: On the obverse, directly below the date. Philadelphia cents have no mint mark.

Identifying and grading wheat pennies

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.

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.

What the value bands mean

• Face value: worth its face in worn condition; only uncirculated coins and varieties carry a premium.
• Small premium: sells for a little over face or metal value even when worn.
• Collector premium: scarcer than usual, so worn coins sell well above face or metal value.
• Significant rarity: a key date, valuable in any condition and often faked.

Bands describe a coin in ordinary circulated condition. An uncirculated coin with full original luster sits a band or more higher. Recognized varieties can be worth far more than the date itself.