Trying to get members' opinions on 1950 S penny

TEDnJAZZY

Hello - I don't know what I have other than a 1950 S penny. I'm going to add a couple pics any input appreciated.

ifthevamzarockin

Welcome to the forum!

Looks like an average circulated wheat cent.
Not an error or anything that would bring a premium.

Manifest_Destiny

It's a common wheat cent, maybe worth 5c.

TEDnJAZZY

Thank you. I appreciate the responses. My collection is 100% change from stores or coins that were gifted to me over the last 53 years. I have a 1 year old and a new boy joining us 7.17.24 I plan on giving them the collection at some point.

TEDnJAZZY

Cool color to it . It's a pretty looking cent.

Manifest_Destiny

@TEDnJAZZY said:
Thank you. I appreciate the responses. My collection is 100% change from stores or coins that were gifted to me over the last 53 years. I have a 1 year old and a new boy joining us 7.17.24 I plan on giving them the collection at some point.

Sounds fun, good luck. My advice would be to get some coin folders and organize your collection that way. Also, buy a red book. Lots of good info about all series of coins.

TEDnJAZZY

Thank you. I 've had them in empty skippy jar since I can remember. I used to have some books and more coins but a divorce a few years ago caused me to misplace them among other things.

Clackamas1

It has cool woodgrain toning. Usually only see that in 20 and 30's coins.

hummingbird_coins

@Clackamas1 said:
It has cool woodgrain toning. Usually only see that in 20 and 30's coins.

I've seen them earlier than the 20s , but 1941 at the latest. This one is the only exception. It makes me think there was a slight change in the alloy after the war once the shell casings ran out, which made it a lot harder for planchets to look this way.

TEDnJAZZY

@hummingbird_coins said:

@Clackamas1 said:
It has cool woodgrain toning. Usually only see that in 20 and 30's coins.

I've seen them earlier than the 20s , but 1941 at the latest. This one is the only exception. It makes me think there was a slight change in the alloy after the war once the shell casings ran out, which made it a lot harder for planchets to look this way.

Thank you . I have a couple other coins I'll post, I look forward to your thoughts.

robec

@hummingbird_coins said:

@Clackamas1 said:
It has cool woodgrain toning. Usually only see that in 20 and 30's coins.

I've seen them earlier than the 20s , but 1941 at the latest. This one is the only exception. It makes me think there was a slight change in the alloy after the war once the shell casings ran out, which made it a lot harder for planchets to look this way.

There are a few wood grain Lincoln’s in the 50’s. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them from the 60’s and 70’s as well

Creg

Good luck—wood grain is pretty.

Dropdaflag

I have always been drawn to wood-grain Lincolns.

CRHer700

@robec said:

@hummingbird_coins said:

@Clackamas1 said:
It has cool woodgrain toning. Usually only see that in 20 and 30's coins.

I've seen them earlier than the 20s , but 1941 at the latest. This one is the only exception. It makes me think there was a slight change in the alloy after the war once the shell casings ran out, which made it a lot harder for planchets to look this way.

There are a few wood grain Lincoln’s in the 50’s. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them from the 60’s and 70’s as well

1981s sometimes show it. That is the only common date of them after the fifties in my experience.

hummingbird_coins

@robec said:
There are a few wood grain Lincoln’s in the 50’s. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them from the 60’s and 70’s as well

Interesting how they seem almost exclusively S-mint.

BillJones

It is interesting to put the OP coin into the perspective of my collector experience.

This coin is 72 years years old. When I got more serious as a collector in the early 1960s, a 72 year old cent would have been an "expotic" Indian Cent from the 1890s. Finding an Indian Cent in circulation in the early 1960s was very difficult. I never did it although I did known a few people who did. The coins they found were always low grade, possibly damaged and not worth much as a collectors' item.

The cents from the 1940s and 1950s are more available today because of the much high mintages. Indian Cent annual mintages were in the 30 to 60 million range with 1907 being the highest at 108 million. By the 1940s mintages had reached a few hundred million coins a year for each mint. In 1956 and '57 it was over a billion.

Furthermore, the Indian Cent had a lot more buying power. A kid could buy a piece of candy, and some grocery items cost a few cents. By the '40s and '50s, the value of the cent was going down. Therefore I would say that the coin saw a lot more use in the early years.

Finally there were more collectors. Coin collecting really took hold with the general public in the 1930s with the introduction of "penny boards" and the like. More coins were set aside.

The point is a 70 year old coin is a lot more common now than a 70 year old coin was in the early 1960s.

johnny9434

it look good in a kids folder or something like that

Copperindian

Nice coin! I like woodgrain toning & have a number of IHC’s with it. Good idea to set it aside for your kids. Hopefully they will appreciate it & look at it as special someday.