1959 Penny Value: Price Chart by Grade & Mint Mark

In 1959 the U.S. Mint struck about 1.89 billion Lincoln cents for circulation: Philadelphia 609.7 million, Denver 1.28 billion. That is 79% more than 1958. Among the 117 years from 1909 to 2025, 1959 ranks number 66 by total mintage (1 = most coins made), so it is a mid-range date for availability. The scarcest 1959 issue by mintage is Philadelphia (609,715,000); the most common is Denver (1,279,760,000). Within the 1950s, 1959 ranks 1 of 10 years for mintage; the decade's high was 1959 (1.89 billion) and its low was 1954 (419.4 million). Mint by mint: Philadelphia rose 141% from 1958; Denver rose 60% from 1958. Proof cents for collectors: 1,149,291 from Philadelphia.

The mint mark, if any, sits under the date on the front of the coin. A 1959 cent with no mint mark was struck at Philadelphia and is the normal, common form for that mint. The letters you can find on 1959 circulation cents are D (Denver). Proof cents for 1959 were struck at Philadelphia with no mint mark; they have mirror-like fields and came from collector sets, not from circulation.

• 1959 introduced the Lincoln Memorial reverse. If a 1959 cent shows the wheat stalks reverse, it is an altered or counterfeit coin; the one known example was tied to a counterfeiting case.
• Cents from this era are 95% copper and weigh 3.11 g. A coin with this date that weighs about 2.5 g is a plated or altered piece, not a transitional error (zinc cents only begin in 1982). Small raised blobs or lines between letters, especially between the B and E of LIBERTY, are die breaks (collectors call them BIE cents); they are common and carry little premium.
• Before anything else, confirm the date and mint mark are fully readable and that the surfaces have not been cleaned; the dates and mint marks guide shows what cleaning and machine doubling look like.

PCGS Price Guide values for 1959 cents (updated September 24, 2026, U.S. dollars, for coins certified by PCGS):

• 1959: $6 in MS63 RD and $18 in MS65 RD.
• 1959-D: $4 in MS63 RD and $18 in MS65 RD.

Philadelphia is the lowest-mintage 1959 issue (609,715,000 struck), so it is the mint collectors check first. Guide prices assume a certified coin; an uncertified, worn 1959 cent usually sells for less than the lowest figure above, often little more than face value. RD means full original red copper, RB red-brown, BN brown; the color grade can multiply the price. How grade and variety turn into a number is explained in what makes a coin valuable.

A mint mark is the small letter that shows which Mint struck a coin. The four U.S. Mints operating today use P (Philadelphia), D (Denver), S (San Francisco) and W (West Point) (Wikipedia, Mint mark). Older coins can carry marks of closed mints. First-use dates from Wikipedia:

• D, Dahlonega, Georgia: 1838 (gold coins; not the same D as Denver)
• C, Charlotte, North Carolina: 1838
• O, New Orleans: 1838
• S, San Francisco: 1854
• CC, Carson City: 1870
• D, Denver: 1906
• M, Manila: 1920
• W, West Point: 1974

Philadelphia coins made before 1980 usually have no letter at all. The exceptions are the silver wartime nickels of 1942–1945 and the Susan B. Anthony dollar from 1979. On the Lincoln cent a P appeared only in 2017, to mark 225 years of the Philadelphia Mint.

• Lincoln cent: on the front, under the date, on every year that has one, including this 1959 coin.
• Washington quarter: from 1968 on, on the front at the lower right, to the right of Washington's neck (Wikipedia, Washington quarter).
• 1965 to 1967: no mint marks on any U.S. circulating coin. They were removed to discourage hoarding when silver was dropped and returned in 1968; on quarters the mark then moved to the front.

For other denominations and older series, the dates and mint marks guide shows where to look.

No letter is valuable by itself; value comes from the combination of year and mint that produced few coins. On Lincoln cents, examples priced by PCGS (September 24, 2026):

• S on a 1909 VDB: $875 in Good, against $18 for the same coin without the S.
• D on a 1914: $185 in Good, against $2 for a 1914 with no mint mark.
• S on a 1931: $70 in Good, against $1 for a 1931 with no mint mark.
• No D on a 1922: all 1922 cents were struck at Denver, so the rare coin is the one missing its D ($550 in Good for the Strong Reverse).
• One letter punched over another: the 1944-D/S ($45 in Good) and 1943-D/D ($50 in Good) show a second letter under the first.

For 1959 itself, neither the plain coin nor the 1959-D carries a premium; both are $18 in MS65 RD.

• Hold the coin under a 5x to 10x magnifier with light coming from the side; a small letter under a worn date shows best at a low angle.
• Tell a letter from damage: a real mint mark has the same crisp edges and depth as the date digits, while a scratch or a spot of corrosion does not.
• Look for a second outline around the letter. That is a repunched or overpunched mint mark, a recognized variety on some dates.
• No letter on a pre-1980 coin usually means Philadelphia, except in 1965–1967 when no mint used marks.

Photographing the front of the coin in the app reads the date and mint mark together and flags known mint-mark varieties for that year.

Research and drafting for this page were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed below. Prices are copied from the named price guide or auction report with its date; where a figure could not be confirmed we say so rather than estimate. If you find an error, tell us and we will correct it.