Wheat penny (Lincoln wheat cent)

How to read it

The Lincoln cent was issued in 1909 for the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, the first circulating US coin to show a real person. Victor David Brenner’s portrait of Lincoln is on the front, and from 1909 to 1958 the reverse showed two ears of wheat (the US Mint calls them sheaves). In 1959 a Lincoln Memorial reverse replaced them, for Lincoln’s 150th birthday. Wheat cents were struck at Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco. NGC says the mint mark is under the date on the front: D for Denver, S for San Francisco, and none for Philadelphia.

Also searched as: Lincoln wheat penny, wheat cent, wheat penny.

Key dates and varieties

Ron Guth’s notes on PCGS CoinFacts name the key dates of the series as the 1909-S VDB penny, 1914-D and 1922 “Plain”, with the 1909-S and 1931-S, and list the 1917 and 1936 doubled die obverse cents among its varieties. The 1943 steel cents are wheat cents too.

What the NGC Price Guide listed

In December 2023 the NGC Price Guide listed a 1924 cent at $0.35 in VG brown and $40 in MS 62 red-brown, and a 1924-D at $38 and $420 in the same grades. In March 2023 it listed a 1944 cent at $3.50 in MS 63 brown and $225 in MS 67 red, and NGC wrote that typical 1944 cents below Mint State were worth less than a dollar. The NGC guide gives average dealer retail prices for NGC-certified coins, and its figures change; these are the prices NGC published on that date.

Look-alikes

The Lincoln Memorial cent of 1959 to 2008 has the same portrait with a building on the reverse instead of wheat. The Indian head cent came before the Lincoln cent, up to 1909.