Collecting Lincoln Cents
By Atlantic Provinces Numismatic Association | Tuesday, 8 November 2011
You can still find the occasional mint errors, mint mark varieties, and relatively scarce modern dates such as the 1969P, 1974S, and 1960D Small Date. However, in today's world one can't expect to complete one-third of a Lincoln Cent Collection by finding them in circulation. Thus, the collector has to turn to the coin dealer for his Lincoln Cents, who in turn is always buying them from other collectors who put them away years ago. Most of the Lincoln Cents that were put away years ago have turned brown and today's astute collectors like to collect Red Cents. Because red or copper colored cents will appreciate in value over the coming years 10 to 50 times more than a brown coin will.
The Lincoln Cent has become a collector's challenge, to complete the set in the best possible condition. A choice BU brown set is still possible but at a rapidly rising prices. Complete circulated 1941 to date sets are available, and in the last few years they are also at rapidly rising prices per set. At this time we have the largest selection of Red Cents on the web, over 10,000 red cents. Why? We think they are a great long-term investment.
The most popular of the Lincoln Cents, the key date coins; 1909S VDB, 1909S, 1914D, 1922P, 1924D, 1931S, 1955 Double Die, and the 1972 Double Die, have had only minor ups and downs in their history with a generally very strong upside trend over the years. They are the key coins the collectors all need and want in any grades. The investors all want coins in the best grades, preferably in Red MS63 to MS65 or better. With the constantly rising demand and the fast shrinking supply, all red coins and the key date coins continue to do extremely well.
However, not far behind are coins known has semi-key dates which in many cases are turning out to be extremely valuable in red mint state grades. These coins include: 1910S, 1911D, 1911S, 1912D, 1912S, 1913D, 1913S, 1914S, 1915, 1921S, 1922D, 1923S, 1926S, 1931D, and 1933D. While these coins in brown lower grades can still be found occasionally, they are extremely scarce to quite rare in Red MS63 to MS65 or better grades. Purchasing red cents from 1941 to date is still possible at very resonable prices. These Modern Red Cents make great long-term investments. It's a good idea to put them in Airtite Containers to keep them red over the coming years for top dollar appreciation.
This article is part of the Collection of short articles for beginners from the Atlantic Provinces Numismatic Association.
More articles
- Canadian coins
- Canadian banknotes
- Canadian tokens and medals
- International
You can submit your own articles by contacting us.
