See what your 1955 pennies are worth! This video provides ALL 1955 penny values — circulated ones, uncirculated ones, plus rare & valuable ones.
⚡TIMESTAMPS⚡
00:00 Intro: 1955 Lincoln Cent Values
00:58 Josh’s Experience Owning 1955 Doubled Die Pennies
02:57 Circulated 1955 Double Die Penny Values
03:08 Uncirculated 1955 Double Die Penny Values
03:32 How To Find Current 1955 Penny Values Online
04:22 Actual SOLD Prices For Rare 1955 Double Die Pennies
06:03 How Much You’d Get If You Sold To A Coin Dealer
06:29 Uncirculated “Ordinary” 1955 Penny Values
06:58 Circulated “Ordinary” 1955 Penny Values (any grade, any mint mark)
07:18 1955 Poor Man’s Double Die (With Machine-Doubling) Values
08:30 Machine Doubling Explained
08:46 1955 Machine-Doubled Die Penny Values
09:06 ALL 1955 Pennies Are Worth More Than Face Value
09:31 Summary: 1955 Penny Values
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TRANSCRIPT:
Hey everybody! This is Josh with The Fun Times Guide and today we’re talking 1955 penny values.
Now I LOVE 1955 Lincoln cents for many different reasons. My favorite reason though might be this one right here. This is the 1955 doubled die penny. It is probably the most important coin variety in all American numismatics. We’ll talk about that coin, all pennies 1955, and more as you watch this video.
1955 pennies… Tell you what, folks, these coins hail from a very important and busy time in American numismatics. It was after World War II, during the baby boom, during some very good economic times for many Americans, and a lot of folks were collecting coins.
And not just pennies, but silver coins, and silver dollars that you could be able to buy from the bank for $1 apiece! (Imagine that.)
And there was the emergence of probably the most important and certainly the first really major variety that people were aware of and collected in droves.. the 1955 double die obverse Lincoln cent.
This example right here, folks, is not the first one I’ve owned. It’s the only one that I currently own. And I’ll tell you about why I no longer have more than one example…
I sold the very first one I ever bought a while back. My wife and I were trying to pay off debt. And in doing so, we were following financial guru Dave Ramsey — who really knows how to get people on track when it comes to paying off debt and getting their financial houses in order.
And one way that my wife and I paid off debt was for us to sell many assets that were not necessarily important. Yes, we might have certainly LIKED them. But we sold a couple cars over that time that we didn’t need. And sold my 1955 doubled die Lincoln (AU55).
I talk all about that and how I rationalized doing that in that video on our Dave Ramsey journey, paying off debt, and paying off our house.
After we were out of debt, we bought back a couple things that we had sold, including this 1955 double die obverse Lincoln cent — which is actually in a better grade than the one that I used to have!
This is MS62 Brown (or BN) — which means that the surface appearance of the coin is brownish.
Now, mind you, there is some rainbow iridescent toning on both the obverse here, as you see, AND the reverse right here. As we tilt the coin at various angles, there is some rainbow iridescence in there — which I really like a lot.
But basically, for grading sake, it’s a Brown (or BN) doubled die obverse Lincoln cent.
So, what’s the coin worth?
In general… we’re… let’s start with circulated values.
A 1955 doubled die obverse Lincoln cent in XF to AU grades is worth between $1,500 and $2,000.
In this grade here, a lower end uncirculated BN… $3,000 to $4,000 is basically a good retail estimation.
As you get into the RB (that is “B” as in boy, Red Brown)… Mint State grades, you’re talking closer to $3,000 to $5,000.
And then in the RD (“D” as in dog), you go from $4,000 to $7,000 and up.
And I do want to go ahead and kind of prove those prices to you here. I did pull up the Heritage Auctions (or ha.com) website. I love this website because it has over a quarter century of auction prices realized, and auction archives from Heritage Auctions, and it’s a lot of fun.
I love to just kind of peruse this website every now and then — just to kind of look at how pricing has evolved over the last number of years for various coins.
As we go through this page, I’m curious if you have any 1955 pennies? Or if you hope to find some! I’d love to know in the comments below about your ’55 Lincoln cents. And if you have any questions about the ones you own, let me know in the comments below — I’ll be more than happy to answer them as I can.
And as you reach the very top of this page here, I do want to show you some auction prices realized for this very important and popular variety.
Let’s start here with the… let’s see here… A cleaned… This is a “cleaned” example, folks! That sold for over $2,200 in AU condition. And mind you, this is a CLEANED example!
We look here at problem-free examples. Here is an MS64 Red… $15,000 realized at auction for this example right here! And this is a pretty cool looking piece. I love that beautiful red color right there. It’s very original — you can tell.
We have here an MS62 RB (Red brown) that sold for over $4,500.
Keep on going from there… We’re talking $7,002 for this MS64 RB (or Red Brown).
You get the idea. This is a 4-figure… a SOLID 4-figure variety really in ANY grade!
Look at this AU50… What is this?… 8 that sold for $2,880. “Make an offer for $3,600 or more.” Again, even in well-worn grades. And it’s kind of hard to find a well-worn example of the ’55 penny — because people became aware of it early on in its life, and looked for these coins, pulled them from circulation. And in most cases, these coins were in higher grades. But even among these circulated examples among these grades, you’re talking $2,000 bucks and up.
You could be offered $1,500 or more for a nice example if you sold it to a dealer. Bear in mind, you’re going to be paid less than retail prices normally for ANY coin. But even this coin here… if you were to sell to a dealer, let’s say you make 60% of retail, you’re still talking certainly a 4-figure coin.
So you get the idea as we go down this auction prices realized page here. This is a very valuable — and RARE — Lincoln cent variety that you should be looking for!
Now beyond the 4-figure Lincoln cents, we have here the more ordinary examples here of the coin…
This is a Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco 1955 Lincoln cent. These are in MS condition. Basically, probably… I would say these are Red. You might get a grader that would say that they’re Red Brown. But either way you look at it, these pieces here are worth about $1 more or less in this grade. Maybe a tad more for a nicer example.
If you come across a circulated 1955 penny of any grade OR any mint, you’re looking between 5 and 25 cents for each example. So again, not super valuable coins in the lower grades or without the all-important doubled die nomenclature — but nevertheless, some really cool coins worth more than face value.
Now, there’s one more coin I want to talk about from this period, and it’s called the 1955 poor person’s (or poor man’s) “doubled die.” I say doubled die in quotes in that case because it’s not really a true double die coin — but rather a coin that exhibits mechanical or machine doubling.
And in that case, we could compare a machine-doubled versus a doubled die Lincoln cent. I don’t actually have a machine-doubled version here to show you. But if you can get a good look… Hopefully you can, despite the glare and shadowing. The bonafide double die has NOTCHING basically in the lettering and the dates presentation here.
I could probably show you here… Actually better on screen. Let’s pull up a ’55 doubled die. Here’s a cool one to show you right here — an AU55 Brown.
See that? That is clear as day doubling! Very drastic doubled die right here. Look at that. The date… right there. The legend liberty… you really cannot miss that. (Especially if you have a loupe or magnifier in hand.) Look at the motto “In God We Trust” — that doubling folks just jumps off the screen!
Now, in the case of the machine-doubled 1955 penny, the doubling is (A) not really all that drastic and (B) instead of having notches like in the serifs (or the ends of the letters and the date numerals and such), the doubled elements are kind of SMEARED from the primary elements.
In most cases, a 1955 machine-doubled (or poor persons… or poor man’s doubled die) is basically worth about $1 buck or $2. And that’s more for novelty’s sake — because they’re not really rare coins, per se. But people do buy those coins that fill gaps in their collections when they can’t afford the doubled die penny.
Anyway you cut it though, 1955 pennies are worth more than face value AND are some really cool coins to own!
I’d love to know about YOUR 1955 pennies. Again, drop me a comment below. I’m always happy to answer questions you may have. I also have on Coins.TheFunTimesGuide.com an entire GUIDE to 1955 pennies… what they’re worth… and what you should be looking for.
Well, there you have it, folks. The good news is that ALL 1955 Lincoln cents ARE worth more than face value!
The question about value really comes down to this…
First of all, what grade is the 1955 penny in? And does it contain the all-important doubled die obverse details? Things to look for and things to think about!
And with that being said, I’ve got a few things for you to please do…
First of all, drop me a line in the comments below, folks. I want to know about YOUR penny search adventures. Or your old pennies. Or things you’re curious about regarding coins. I can answer some of these questions for you. And of course, the folks who also answer and reply down below can also help.
Two, check out Coins.TheFunTimesGuide.com. We have value guides for basically EVERY Lincoln cent out there — including 1955 doubled die pennies and 1955 pennies of any variety, any type, and any grade.
Also, don’t give up! You CAN find coins like this in your pocket change… and in rolls… and old coffee cans of coins… and beyond. It’s not going to be easy, but those coins are out there waiting for YOU to discover.
So, this has been Josh from The Fun Times Guide saying thank you for watching, I appreciate your support, and happy collecting!
