Coins

Where it was struck

The US Mint lists four mint marks in use today: P for Philadelphia, D for Denver, S for San Francisco and W for West Point. Most circulating coins have a P, a D or no mint mark, which signifies Philadelphia.

How worn it is

Grading services use the Sheldon scale of 1 to 70, first used in the United States in the late 1940s, NGC says. Sixty is the threshold for an uncirculated coin, graded MS (mint state) from 60 to 70. Even the lowest grade depends on the date and mint mark: the ANA’s Poor-1 is a coin whose date and mint mark are still strong enough to read, and CAC won’t encapsulate a coin on which either is illegible.

Reading date, mint mark and grade together

Lincoln cents dated 1909, NGC explains, have no mint mark (Philadelphia) or an S (San Francisco), and the first were struck with the designer’s initials, VDB, on the reverse. Those two details separate four kinds of 1909 cent. The 1909-S VDB, with 484,000 struck, has the lowest mintage of the business-strike Lincoln cents, CoinWeek says. On copper the grade adds a color: NGC’s price guide lists the 1909-S VDB at AU 50 BN, MS 60 RB and MS 65 RD, for brown, red-brown and red.

The date alone can mislead. The Coinage Act of 1965 had silver coins struck after it dated 1964, and PCGS says the Mint kept striking them through January 1966. No circulating coins had mint marks from 1965 to 1967, so a 1965 quarter looks like a Philadelphia coin, though PCGS notes that Denver struck them too. Every Bicentennial quarter reads 1776-1976, and the Mint says one struck in 1975 can’t be told from one struck in 1976. A mint mark can show the metal instead: a silver war nickel dated 1942 weighs the same as a copper-nickel one, NGC says, and is told apart by its large mint mark above Monticello.