1968-S Pennies, No Respect? (Changed Year)

dakra

I've been going over wheat pennies and Lincoln memorials and found that the 1968-S Penny is one of the lowest mintages (261.3M) but doesn't appear to get any respect from coin collectors. It's value is similar to Pennies that have billions minted.

Anyone have any idea why this penny gets no respect?

-Dave

Edited to change the year.... I feel like a doofus

clw54

You sure?

Thenewguy

1963-s cent?? My books show the mintage for the 1963-s as a staggering zero.
SF stopped minting cents after 1955 and didn't start minting them again until 1968 at least thats what the coin books show.
TNG

dakra

That was really embarassing

There I was, posting the message...rushing out the door. In any case, why no premium for this coin? In double checking, this coin has the lowest mintage of any penny from 1959 to present day.

Anyone know of any mint errors or varieties I should be on the look out for?

Thanks,
David

littlewicher

I've also wondered why this specific date and MM has so little interest. I consider a semi-key date for the modern pennies. I have a PCGS MS66 RD example for sale, if anyone is interested.

gmarguli

Now that you've changed the date, you may want to change the mintage. It is not 250K, but rather 258M.

StillLurking

For every 1909 S VDB minted there were 539 1968 S cents minted. 484,000 versus 261,311,507. It's just not rare.

dakra

I understand it doesn't have the low mintage that the 1909-S has but it also does not have the 2, 3, 4 Billion that others have. The Red Book (2002) lists the price at .10 but the price is the same for pennies that have more 10x the amount in circulation. In fact the P Mint 65-66-67-68 are worth twice as much according to the red book but again, have 10x the amount circulating.

I also checked out the Pop report, only '67 has more listed and if we go by percentage of how many are on the pop report and how many were minted, the '68 S blows it away.

I guess I'm speculating but does anyone else feel that perhaps 10 years down the road, this coin may finally get noticed?

Dave

Gerry

Actually, the 1968-S Lincoln seems to have gotten somewhat more than its fair share of attention, at least in terms of PCGS submissions.

The current pop report shows that 235 1968-S’s have been graded (which is one of the higher totals among all regular-issue memorials) and 21 of those have been graded ms67rd - much more than any other Lincoln from the 1960's.

So, its mintage may be relatively small compared to other memorials, but as a graded coin it is much more common. Therefore, it won’t command a very high price when it is available.

leothelyon

Earlier, when I saw the original post I was going to ask what country it was from......but thought that would be rude. Otherwise you would have had one heck of a rare coin there.

Leo

dakra

I viewed the high number on the pop report as other collectors speculating that this coin would have a good return on it's investment one day.

In any case.. I'm calling it a night.

-Dave

cladking

Low mintage is almost a kiss of death for a modern, especially a cent and more
especially from the 60's or 70's. People saved this coin in significant numbers
not only for the low mintage but also because it was the first S marked coin in
many years. The years have been particularly unkind to this coin and many were
unattractive to start with, but there are many millions stashed away in rolls and
bags. The coin is quite difficult to find in circulation due to a huge attrition rate
and the enormous mintages of subsequent years which have just swallowed it
up. The coin can be found in very high grade in mint sets and will sometimes look
almost prooflike. Gem tend to have a very attractive luster which may make people
more likely to submit nice examples.

wayneherndon

The 1968-S cents were saved in BU rolls and bags in disproportionate quantities. Roll and bag collecting was very popular at the time (so much so that the Mint blamed the coin shortage on collectors hoarding rolls and bags). The 1968-S was held in greater quantities due to the resumption of use of the S mint mark missing on US coinage since 1955. For some weird reason, people tend to hoard the "last of" or "first of" coins in most any series.

Also, the relative low mintage was known at the time and many speculators hoarded the coins.

I would also speculate that with Proof Sets being minted in SF for the first time in 1968 that there was a lot of general S mint excitement in the hobby at the time. All the more reason to put a few rolls of cents away. The S mint mark, like CC, has always been a romantic one for collectors.

Now, consider the abundance of 1968-S bags/ BU rolls in the context of this piece of trivia: Sol Taylor speculates in his Lincoln book that NO, that's right NO mint-sewn bags of 1967 cents remain today. Isn't that amazing! I once thought I had one but it was really a bag marked 1967 that the Mint had re-used for 1968-S cents.

Another interesting tidbit is that the Mint announced first that the S mintmark would be added to proof coins. It was not until some time later that they indicated the cents and nickels struck at SF would bear the S mintmark (coins had been struck at SF for the past few years without the mintmark). Thus, collectors initially assumed that proof sets would be the only source of the S mint coins and the proof sets quickly sold out. The record breaking mintage of the 1964 proof set has been surpassed only by the 1976 silver 3-piece proof set (which was sold for over 5 years) and the 1981 proof set, both of which just barely beat it.

WH

Thenewguy

Book shows 3 RPM's for the 1968-s, S/S north, S/S east and S/S south.
TNG

coppercoins

Add to the three RPMs, two obverse doubled dies and a reverse doubled die for business strike 1968S. Others exist for the proofs.