See the most valuable pennies in circulation worth money. Top CIRCULATING pennies to look for – each worth $1 to $2,000!
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⚡TIMESTAMPS FROM THE VIDEO⚡
00:00 Intro: 43 most valuable pennies in circulation
01:49 1909 penny with no mint mark worth $3+
02:21 Why VDB initials on a 1909 penny are so valuable
02:39 Key date pennies explained
03:33 Mint marks on lower-mintage coins explained
03:58 My funny story about the 1909-S VDB penny
04:34 1909 penny Halloween costume pictures
05:21 Great Depression-era pennies explained
06:04 Circulated vs uncirculated penny explained
06:32 Scarce pennies explained
09:15 Boldly doubled mint mark pennies explained
10:10 Over mintmark errors on pennies explained
12:02 How to identify 1955 doubled die penny ($1,000+)
12:40 Small date vs large date penny explained
14:04 How to identify 1972 doubled die penny ($250+)
14:56 How to identify 1983 doubled die penny ($200+)
16:02 How to identify 1984 doubled die penny ($150+)
17:00 Close AM vs Wide AM error pennies explained
17:15 How to identify 1992-D Close AM penny ($2,000+)
18:14 How to identify 1995 doubled die penny ($25+)
18:51 How to identify the 1922-D penny worth $15+
19:35 How to identify 1999 Wide AM penny error ($500+)
20:17 Transitional penny errors explained
20:42 How to identify 1922 plain penny error ($500+)
21:06 Die clash penny errors explained
22:35 Summary of 43 most valuable pennies in circulation
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TRANSCRIPT:
Today we’re looking at 43 pennies you can be able to find in pocket change, coin rolls, your spare change jar. And each of these 43 pennies is worth more than a dollar! Now, I’m not a math major here but we’re talking more than 100 times face value! A few of the 43 most valuable pennies that we’re looking at are actually worth a lot more than a couple of bucks though. We’re talking $500… $1,000… $2,000… and even more than that.
We’ll start with the OLDEST Lincoln penny that’s valuable. That’s the 1909 penny. That’s the first year Lincoln cents came out. They’re worth $3 and up… so, worth looking for! We’ll end with the most valuable RECENT Lincoln penny — the 1999 Wide AM penny. It’s worth $500… or more. I’ll even show you the difference between a Wide AM penny and a Close AM penny and other pickup points you should be looking for when you’re trying to find valuable pennies. In between those 2 valuable pennies from 1909 and 1999, there are 41 MORE Lincoln cents. Including a few pennies you can find circulation worth as much as $2,000! Now, let’s see what those 43 most valuable pennies are AND how much they’re worth!
What are the rarest and most valuable pennies? Well, I have some right here in my collection. I’m going to go ahead and show you. We’ll start with the 1909 penny with no mint mark. Which is this coin right here. And I will start with the disclaimer… please forgive me I am not a professional hand model. I’m a coin collector slash gardener and gardening blog writer. So, my hands are not in perfect condition. But beyond my hands… Let’s go ahead and look at this coin. Now again, this is the Philadelphia Mint 1909 penny. You’ll see here on the reverse, there is no VDB initial — or initials rather — for Victor David Brenner. See that…that’s blank down there. This one’s worth about $3 and up in this condition.
The next penny we’ll highlight is the 1923-S penny. It’s worth about $2. It has the “S” mint mark for the San Francisco Mint. See it right there… it’s right there.
Next up, back to the first page… the 1909 VDB penny from the Philadelphia Mint — which means it has no mint mark. (Oops, that’s the wrong one.) No mint mark right there under the date. Again, I don’t know if you can see that or not. But it does have the VDB initials for Victor David Brenner on the base of the reverse field. You can probably see it right there. A little on the fuzzy side here.
Next up, the 1924-D penny. This is a semi key date. Not really a rare coin per se. But it’s one of the lower mintage pieces. And it’s considered to be a tougher date really in any grade. But you see the “D” mint mark right there. It’s worth about 30 bucks and up.
Now, we’ll go to one of the rare — or at least categorically rare — pennies. The 1909-S penny. This is not the one that a lot of you probably have heard about with the VDB…which you’ll see right over here. We’ll get to it in a second — for the value on that. But this is a 1909-S penny with no VDB. Let me go ahead and show you… just so you can see what that looks like on the reverse here. Again, no VDB right back there. That’s worth around $80 and up as of this video.
Now, back to the second page for the 5th coin here on our list. The 1924-S penny. Now you might be catching a theme here. A lot of these scarcer coins are from the first, we’ll say 15 to 20 years of the series, and are mint marked. Those are overall the lower mintage coins in the Lincoln Cent series — so they have a lot more value than say your later dates or those from the Philadelphia Mint. The 1924-S is worth about $11 and up.
Now, we’re going to go to another early mint marked coin that I think you have heard about and I kind of teased a minute ago. The 1909-S VDB penny. You see it right here. It has the “S” mint mark under the date, which you can probably see in the video. And, just so you see what I’m looking at here… The famous VDB initials on the reverse side of the coin. And this one actually… This is a coin I paid for on layaway many many years ago. I always wanted it since I was a kid. And when I got my first real job, I actually put 3 payments in to buy this coin on Layaway. I don’t plan to ever sell it because to me it’s such a special coin. I actually dressed up one year as a 1909-S VDB penny for Halloween, if you can believe that! It was a homemade costume. I actually lost the paper cardboard-based costume in Hurricane Milton due to a little bit of water intrusion, sadly. But it lasted about 30 years in my home and I’ll always cherish the memories of my 1909-S VDB Halloween costume from when I was, what, 12 years old!
Now, we’ll go to the 1926-S penny. Again, we’re going to follow the theme here of early mint marked Lincoln cents. There it is right there. It is worth about $5 and up.
Now, back to the first page… The 1910-S penny. A very early mint marked scare date. It’s worth around 15 bucks and up.
Now I’ll go to the second page here. The 1931-D penny. This is a early depression era (Great Depression era) coin… when across the board, U.S. mintage numbers really fell because there wasn’t much demand for circulating coinage at that time. Because there was severe economic malaise in our country. Really across much of the world at that time. And it impacted U.S. Mint production figures. This one’s worth about, we’ll say… about 4 bucks and up… in general, and in well-worn condition as you see here.
We’ll go to another Denver Mint coin here. The 1911-D penny. An early mint marked scarce date. We’ll call it a semi-key date, which it really is. It’s worth about 5 bucks and up.
Now, back to 1931… We have here the 1931-S Lincoln cent which is a key date by definition. Although so many were saved early on in better grades that it’s actually about as common in uncirculated condition as it is in circulated grades, believe it or not. The value for the 1931-S penny hovers around 85 to 100 bucks and up. So keep that one on your radar when you’re looking through rolls of pennies.
Now, the 1911-S penny. I call this sort of a borderline key date. It is not one of the lowest mintage coins out there. But it certainly is in the Top say 5, when it comes to, or Top 10 when it comes to the regular issue Lincoln cents. This one is worth around 40 to 50 bucks or more in circulated grades. It’s a very scarce coin. You won’t always find one in the condition maybe you want. And when you do find one, you might want to pay a little more to ensure you get it. Because there is competition for these early mint mark coins that show nice chocolate toning, as this one does here. No outward evidence of any cleaning or corrosion or whatever. And no signs of damage — like holes or scratches or heavy nicks and those things.
Now, the 1932 Philadelphia no mintmark penny is another scare date to keep an eye out for. You see right here in my collection. That one’s worth about $1.50 and up.
In that same pricing range we have the 1912 penny no mint mark. Right here from the Philadelphia Mint. That’s good for about a dollar or more.
1932-D penny… Another scarcer date. Right over here you see it. It’s worth about… oh, about a dollar… $1.50 and up. Right there.
The 1912-D penny. Again, another early mint marked coin.These are tough to find in circulated condition with just honest wear. So no cleaning or holes or, you know, other problems like that. You could look at about $6 to $8 for this coin in this condition, and of course up from there.
The 1933 no mintmark penny. Right over here on the second page again. Worth about a buck, or more. It’s not the lowest mintage coin. It is though a LOWER mintage coin. Some would call it a semi-key date. I say it’s more of a tough date. But no matter how you cut it, it is a coin to look for when you’re going through rolls. Or if you’re trying to build a collection like this of Lincoln pennies. Try to find a good one. Not “good 4” per se, as in the grade condition. But find a nice one that has good eye appeal and no outward problems.
The 1912-S penny right over here. Another scarce date that is worth about 20 bucks and up even in this grade right here.
The 1933-D penny you see over here on the second page again. This one’s good for about 2 bucks or more.
As is the 1913-D penny back over here. Three bucks and up will buy you a nice condition example.
Now, the 1943-D boldly doubled mint mark penny. I don’t actually have one in my collection. This is mainly a regular issue album. In that sense that it really just has the coins that were regular issues, NOT varieties. Now there are a few varieties that you could include IN this album… like the 1922 Plain penny, which we’ll see in a minute. But the 1943-D boldy doubled mintmark penny… I’ll show you the regular “D” mint mark, which you probably can’t see too well here on the screen. But that’s a regular 1943-D. The 1943 boldly doubled mint mark will show doubling in the “D” mint mark. That’s worth about 10 bucks and up.
Now, around the same price point is the 1913-S penny. Back to the first page for that one over here. An early mint mark scarce date. 12 bucks an up will buy you a nice example in well-worn grades.
The 1944 D over S penny. Again, I don’t have that one in my collection. But if you find one in which the “D” mint mark was punched over an inadvertently punched “S” mint mark on the die… Okay, so the “D” is over traces of the “S”. Okay, that’s worth about $125 and up. Over-mintmark errors like that generally are scarce. Especially in the 20th century. Because not many mistakes like that were made in that era. So, keep that in mind. Look for those over-mintmark errors and double-mintmark errors on ANY coins you go through. But especially on pennies of the, we’ll say, the mid 20th century. You see a lot of those issues out there like that.
The 1914-D penny. This is indeed a rare date. It’s also an early mintmarked date that you see here. The 1914-D penny generally sells for about $175 and up. Even in a grade of “good”. This here is a “good 6” example right here. A very tough date to look for and find. When you find it, you want one that’s in nice condition. This one shows no outward signs of cleaning, heavy scratches, or nicks, or things that would be — you know — a detractor, so to speak, for the coin.
The 1946 S over D. Again, another over-mintmark error that I do not have in my collection. But in this case the “S” mintmark was punched over a “D” mintmark on the die. And you will see traces of the “D” on that coin. That’s worth about 35 bucks now.
Now, the 1914-S penny. Remember the theme of the early mintmarked coins that are scarce in the series. Well, we’re back to it again right here. This one’s worth about 20 bucks and up even in this condition right here, which you can see is heavily worn.
Now, the next coin that is worth a lot of money that you want to look for… that I no longer have! I had to sell it to pay the mortgage. But it’s a 1955 doubled die obverse penny. I wish I had that in my collection still to show you. I will someday repurchase one. But if you find one, and I hope you do, it’s worth over $1,000 even in well-worn condition!
Now, the next coin on our list here is a coin I do have. Not worth 1,000 bucks (at least in circulated grades). But it’s the 1915 penny with no mint mark right over here. That’s worth about $1.50 and up in well worn condition.
Now, we go to the 70s with this next coin! The 1970-S Small Date penny. You see right over here… this is one of the varieties that is in this album… this Dansco album. So basically, in 1970 the U.S. Mint made Lincoln cents with dates of two different physical sizes right here. The way you can tell a small date is by looking to see if the tops of all the numerals in the date line up, like on an invisible plane. Which you probably can’t see. I wish I could draw a line across it to show you. But the low 7, which you see here with the large date. If you see a low 7 in your 1970 Penny it’s a large date. So see that? How the 7 drops just below the height of the 9 and the 0. Whereas on the small date, the 1… the tops of the 1, the 9, the 7, and 0 all kinda line up. That’s your small date. That’s worth around 30 bucks and up in circulated condition, as this one is here.
Now, back to the teens… 1915 that is. The 1915-D penny… Oh that’s not 1915. This is! There we go. This coin’s worth about 2 bucks and up in well worn grades like “good” or “very good”. A lower mintage coin. Again, the early mintmarked Lincoln cents are generally scarce. So anything before 1920 that has a mint mark on it in the Lincoln cent series you should hang on to anyway. Some pieces are worth more than others. But the 1915-D is certainly one you want to hang on to.
The next coin worth looking for… the next penny worth looking for… I don’t have anymore. Again, I sold it for the house. I’m trying to pay the mortgage off. My wife and I are almost there. But the 1972-D penny which would be… Now, there’s not actually a spot for it in this album. But I had a slabbed example. That is worth roughly 250 bucks and up in ANY condition! The doubling is really heavy in the “In God We Trust” motto, in the legend Liberty, and the date 1972. So, keep an eye out for that!
The 1915-S penny… Again, we’re going really through all the early to mid-teens here on this video. The 1915-S penny… That is worth around 20 bucks and up in circulated condition.
The 1983 doubled die penny, which there’s no slot for in this album. I actually had an example years and years ago. I sold it. It actually has doubling on the reverse, or the backside of the coin. So what you want to do if you’re looking for the 1983 double die penny is… look for signs of heavy doubling in the “United States of America” inscription, E Pluribus Unum, and in “ONE CENT”. Now if you find a 1983 double die penny, you’re looking at a coin that’s worth about $200 or more. So… it’s worth looking for! A lot of folks don’t know that it exists. Especially those folks outside of our hobby. So if you are aware of the 1983 double die penny, you have some insight that most folks don’t have and will not know about unless they are coin collectors. So keep an eye out for the ’83 double die penny.
The 1916-D penny. Moving along here… We’ve got right here… okay. That’s worth about a buck and up even in worn grades. Keep an eye out for that.
The 1984 double die penny. Again, another double die that I sold. I wouldn’t say regrettably because I could always buy it back and it has helped pay down debt. But because it did pay down debt, you might surmise that it’s worth some money — and indeed it is. About 150 bucks or more. What you want to do is look for doubling of Lincoln’s ear on the 1984 double die penny. I don’t have it here, so I can’t really show you the example. But you would see basically an extra lobe of Lincoln’s ear just below the primary lobe there. Again, worth about 100 to 150 bucks and up in mint state grades.
The 1916-S penny… Let’s go back to the front here again on that one. Another scarce date worth about $1.50 and up. I’ll show you an example right here. This is a well-worn example. Typical of what you’d find in an album like this, or coin folder. Again, about $1.50 and up. Keep an eye out for that.
Now, I do not have this next penny. Nor have I ever had it — at least the date anyway. The 1992 Close AM penny. There is a Philadelphia version with NO mint mark and a Denver version with a “D” mint mark. And what you’re looking for is… Let me show you an example of the reverse here… In the 90s. So… Do you see the “A” and “M” right there? Okay, on the Close AM penny, the bases of the “A” and the “M” will appear to nearly touch each other. Now, if you find a 1992 no mint mark or 1992-D penny where the “A” and the “M” almost touch… Hang on to it. It’s worth at least $2,000 or more! Just so you know, I’m looking for that one too. So good luck fellow Close AM searchers.
The 1921-S penny. Another rare date to look for. Let’s go ahead and pull up the 1921-S here. I think we’re there. We’re there! Right there… that is a scarce date. Generally speaking, you’re looking at about a buck or more for 1921-S, at least in this condition right here. And of course much more if you are looking for (or have) an uncirculated version.
The 1995 double die penny… I remember when this coin was first discovered back in 1995 in the spring, if memory serves. It was actually on the radio and TV news. Everyone… everybody was looking for the 1995 double die Lincoln cent when it first came out. I used to have a version or an example. I don’t have it anymore due to aforementioned debt repayment on our mortgage. I’m going to try and buy one again on down the road. If you find a 1995 double die penny you’ll know because you’ll see very prominent doubling in “In God We Trust”, Liberty, and the date. That’s worth about 25 bucks and up.
Now, the 1922-D penny! Back to Page 2 here in our trusty Dansco album. This is actually the regular issue version of the 1922 penny. All ’22s were struck at the Denver Mint. And they SHOULD have a “D” mint mark right there under the date… as this one does have. It is a scarce date though. And it’s worth about $15 or more. And they’re tough to find. Not impossible! I mean you can certainly if you have the money you’ll be able to buy one. But these are coins that you do need to do some searching for to find a nice example that has no discoloration, no scratches, there’s no signs of cleaning. So you know, if you’re shopping for one just look for a nice one.
The 1999 Wide AM penny. Now, let’s go back over here to the back of the book. You’ll recall a minute ago I showed you the Close AM and how the “A” and the “M” will touch on the Close AM date. Now, in the mid-90s and after, the Close AM… okay… that was actually typical of a… here we go… That was typical of the reverse of pennies from 1993 and on — for circulated strikes. For proofs, it was the opposite. But in 1999, there was the Wide AM penny. Now, it’s a transitional error in which the “A” and the “M” were spaced further apart. So, as most pennies struck prior to ’92 were… You know, we’ll look at the back here for example… of a… this is a late 80s penny. And you see kind of a Wide AM there. If your 1999 penny has a Wide AM positioning like that, that’s worth 500 bucks and up!
And finally, we go to the 1922 Plain penny. So, the story with that is… As you recall a minute ago… All 1922 pennies should have had a “D” mint mark. BUT there was a problem… as so often happens with coins like this. (Errors.) There was some die damage that occurred at the mint in Denver. What happened was it was basically like a die clash. The 2 dies hit each other. Okay? The reverse die was replaced. Okay? And in fact… make sure I’ve got the right one here… Yep! You’ll see that the reverse actually looks pretty strong on that one. That’s because it’s made from a new die. But the obverse die was polished. And one might dare say OVER-polished! The “D” mint mark as you see here was obliterated by a very… We’ll say… overzealous Mint worker… who tried to remove damage in the area of the “D” and they removed the “D” altogether. So, what we have here is a very scarce… You might call it a variety or an error. It’s a variety you could say by definition. But an error because it was not intended to be struck this way. But the 1922 Plain penny… you see an example right here in “good 6” condition… is worth about $500 and up! Will you find one in a roll? I can’t say “no”… because it’s not impossible. But it’s unlikely you will find one in a roll. You’ll probably likelier find one actually in an old coin collection that maybe you got… that maybe you inherited or whatever, or someone passed down to you. But it’s a coin you want to look out for. A definite keeper. And with a $500 and up price tag… a coin I can promise you I’m looking for!
And that would be 43 pennies worth money and that are definitely worth looking for. Well, there you have it. Those are 43 valuable pennies worth looking for. Again I don’t have them all. I’m looking for them. I hope you are too! Let us know down in the comments below if you found any and which ones you have found. And again this is Josh with TheFunTimesGuide.com. Thanks for watching!
