What is a wheat penny worth?
Most wheat pennies are worth about five cents. A few dates are worth hundreds, and one of them is the only US cent ever struck in steel.
In the Buck index
Lincoln CentUnited States · 1909–1958 · Bronze$0.21 to $1.88
1943 Steel CentUnited States · 1943–1944 · Zinc plated steel$0.22 to $1.04
A wheat penny is a Lincoln cent from 1909 to 1958, named for the two ears of wheat on the back. Around 25 billion of them were struck, which is the single most important fact about their value: they are common, they are still turning up in jars, and the ordinary ones are worth a few cents each.
Buck prices circulated wheat cents at roughly $0.21 to $1.88. That is the honest band for a coin you found in change. The exceptions are worth knowing by heart, because there are only a handful.
The five dates that matter
| Issue | Why | Rough circulated value |
|---|---|---|
| 1909-S VDB | 484,000 struck, designer's initials on the reverse | $700 and up |
| 1909-S | First year, San Francisco | $90 and up |
| 1914-D | Low mintage Denver issue | $200 and up |
| 1922 plain | A Denver coin with the D worn off the die | $500 and up |
| 1931-S | Depression-year low mintage | $75 and up |
Everything else in the run is a common date. A 1943 steel cent is not rare either, despite what everybody's uncle says, and it has its own article.
Where to look for the mint mark
Under the date on the obverse. S is San Francisco, D is Denver, and no letter is Philadelphia. On the 1909-S VDB the initials sit at the very bottom of the reverse, between the wheat stalks, and they are the whole difference between a $700 coin and a $10 one.
That is exactly why the 1909-S VDB is the most counterfeited US cent there is. The usual fake is a genuine 1909-S with the initials added, or a common Philadelphia coin with an S glued on. A coin worth several hundred dollars should be weighed, measured and looked at by somebody in person before money changes hands.
Condition still matters more than you expect
A common-date wheat cent in genuinely uncirculated condition, with original red colour rather than brown, is worth several dollars rather than several cents. Copper tones from red to red-brown to brown as it oxidises, and the grading vocabulary tracks that: RD, RB, BN. Original red on a seventy-year-old cent means the coin has been kept somewhere dry and dark since it was struck.
Do not try to make a brown coin red. Every method that works chemically is visible as damage, and it costs more than the colour is worth.
What to do with a jar of them
Sort by date, pull the five above plus anything before 1920, and leave the rest alone. A bag of common wheat cents sells for a small premium over face because people like searching them, not because the coins are scarce.
If you want the sorting done for you, photograph them a handful at a time. Buck reads every coin in the frame at once and prices them into a single total, so a jar becomes a number in a few minutes rather than an evening.
