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Notable US coins

The US coins people ask about by name, what identifies each one, and what makes some of them scarcer.

The US coins people ask about by name are mostly notable for the metal they were struck in, a scarce date or mint mark, or a mistake at the Mint.

Cents 5 symbols

Nickels 2 symbols

Quarters and half dollars 4 symbols

Wartime metals

In 1943 the cent was made of zinc-coated steel because copper was needed during World War II, the US Mint says, which gives the 1943 steel penny its gray, silver-like surface. A limited number of copper cents were struck by mistake that year. About 40 are known, and in 1999 the Mint reported coin experts’ view that copper blanks had stayed in the press hopper. The war nickel of 1942 to 1945 held no nickel. It was 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese, with a large mint mark above Monticello to show the change, and the letter P for Philadelphia used on a US coin for the first time.

Silver and the Coinage Act of 1965

Dimes, quarters and half dollars could be struck in 90% silver only until the Coinage Act of 1965, passed amid a coin shortage that NGC puts down to the hoarding of silver coins. The Act made the quarter copper-nickel clad on a copper core. Silver quarters end with the 1964 date. The 1965 quarter was the first coin to bear the date 1965. The Kennedy half dollar, first offered in March 1964, was 90% silver for 1964, 40% from 1965, and without silver from 1971, when rising silver prices ended it.

Scarce dates and errors

Only 484,000 1909-S VDB cents were issued before the designer’s initials were removed, and NGC calls the coin the key to the Lincoln cent series. The 1955 doubled die cent has wide doubling on all the lettering of its obverse, from a single pair of dies; PCGS puts the number struck at about 20,000. The 1937-D three-legged Buffalo nickel lost the bison’s front right leg when a die was ground down in over-polishing.

Designs people name

The wheat penny is the Lincoln cent with the wheat ears reverse, used until 1958. Before it came the Indian head penny of 1859 to 1909, whose portrait PCGS’s Ron Guth describes as a head of Liberty in an Indian chief’s headdress. The Bicentennial quarter has Jack Ahr’s colonial drummer on the reverse and 1776-1976 in place of the date on every one struck in 1975 and 1976.

Sources

  1. Penny, US Mint, Learn: circulating coins, United States Mint, History
  2. 1943 1C (Regular Strike) Lincoln Cent (Wheat Reverse), PCGS #2711, PCGS CoinFacts (Professional Coin Grading Service), Specifications; description
  3. What’s So Special About the 1943 Copper Penny?, Press release, 8 March 1999, United States Mint, Whole release
  4. Jefferson Nickel, Type 2, Silver Alloy (1942–1945), CoinFacts category page, Ron Guth, PCGS CoinFacts (Professional Coin Grading Service), Type description (Ron Guth)
  5. Face Value: Silver Coins in Circulation, NGC news, posted 10 January 2023, Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC), 1932-1964 Washington Quarters
  6. Coinage Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-81), Public Law 89-81, 79 Stat. 254, U.S. Congress (GovInfo), Sec. 101(a)(2), 101(b); Sec. 204(a)
  7. Historical Timeline of the US Mint, US Mint, Learn: history, United States Mint, 1965 entries
  8. Minting a Legacy: The History of the Kennedy Half Dollar, NPS article, U.S. National Park Service, Whole article
  9. First Striking of Half Dollars From New Coinage Material at U.S. Mint at Denver on Thursday, US Mint historical documents (news release, December 1965), United States Mint, Paragraphs 7 to 9
  10. 1909-S VDB 1C, RD (Regular Strike) Lincoln Cent (Wheat Reverse), PCGS #2428, PCGS CoinFacts (Professional Coin Grading Service), Specifications; description
  11. Face Value: 1909 Lincoln Cents, NGC news, posted 13 June 2023, Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC), 1909-S Cents; 1909 Lincoln Cents
  12. Counterfeit Detection: Altered 1955 Doubled Die Obverse Cent, NGC news, August 2019, Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC), Whole article
  13. 1955 1C Doubled Die Obverse, BN (Regular Strike) Lincoln Cent (Wheat Reverse), PCGS #2825, PCGS CoinFacts (Professional Coin Grading Service), Specifications; description
  14. 1937-D 5C 3 Legs (Regular Strike) Buffalo Nickel, PCGS #3982, PCGS CoinFacts (Professional Coin Grading Service), Specifications; description
  15. Face Value: The Coins of 1924, NGC news, posted 12 December 2023, Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC), 1924 Lincoln Cents
  16. Indian Cent (1859–1909), CoinFacts category page, Ron Guth, PCGS CoinFacts (Professional Coin Grading Service), Series description (Ron Guth)
  17. Bicentennial Coins and Medals, US Mint, Learn: coins and medals, United States Mint, Bicentennial coins
  18. Public Law 93-127 (Bicentennial coinage), 87 Stat. 455 (18 October 1973), U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo), Sec. 2
  19. Quarter Dollar, US Mint, Learn: circulating coins, United States Mint, History

Last reviewed September 29, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research