1965 Penny Value: Price Chart by Grade & Mint Mark

In 1965 the U.S. Mint struck about 1.50 billion Lincoln cents for circulation: Philadelphia 301.5 million, Denver 973.4 million, San Francisco 220.0 million, San Francisco 2.4 million. That is 77% fewer than 1964. Among the 117 years from 1909 to 2025, 1965 ranks number 69 by total mintage (1 = most coins made), so it is a mid-range date for availability. The scarcest 1965 issue by mintage is San Francisco (2,360,000); the most common is Denver (973,364,900). Within the 1960s, 1965 ranks 10 of 10 years for mintage; the decade's high was 1964 (6.45 billion) and its low was 1965 (1.50 billion). Mint by mint: Philadelphia fell 88% from 1964; Denver fell 74% from 1964; San Francisco rose 12% from 1964; San Francisco fell 99% from 1964.

No 1965 cent carries a mint mark: the Mint left mint marks off all coins from 1965 to 1967. A blank space under the date is normal for this year.

• No U.S. coins carried mint marks in 1965, 1966 or 1967, so a cent from these years never shows a D or S. A missing mint mark is normal here and does not indicate an error or a rarity.
• 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 1965 cents (updated September 24, 2026, U.S. dollars, for coins certified by PCGS):

• 1965: $5 in MS63 RD and $18 in MS65 RD.

San Francisco is the lowest-mintage 1965 issue (2,360,000 struck), so it is the mint collectors check first. Guide prices assume a certified coin; an uncertified, worn 1965 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.

The Mint left mint marks off all coins dated 1965 to 1967 to discourage the hoarding it blamed for the coin shortage before the Coinage Act of 1965 (Wikipedia). All three mints struck 1965 cents without a letter: Philadelphia 301,470,000, Denver 973,364,900 and San Francisco 220,030,000 (Wikipedia, Lincoln cent mintage figures). CoinWeek gives the business-strike total as 1,497,224,900.

The smaller San Francisco figure of 2,360,000 in the table above is not a circulation issue: it is the Special Mint Set cents, which have a satin finish (Wikipedia). So a 1965 cent with no mint mark could come from any of the three mints, and none of them is rarer for lacking a letter.

The Mint stopped selling proof and mint sets for 1965 to 1967 and offered Special Mint Sets instead; San Francisco began striking the 1965-dated prooflike coins in 1966 (CoinWeek). The 2,360,000 SMS cents have a satin finish (Wikipedia) and sharper details than coins made for change. An SMS cent still in its original Mint packaging is the easiest to confirm; a loose one is hard to tell from a well-struck circulation coin without an expert.

Only the very top grades bring real money. The PCGS Price Guide (September 24, 2026) lists a 1965 cent at $26 in MS66 RD, $425 in MS67 RD and $6,500 in MS68 RD. CoinWeek reports a PCGS MS67+RD sold for $4,080 at Heritage Auctions on November 6, 2023, and that as of April 2025 PCGS and NGC had each graded only one 1965 cent MS68RD. CoinWeek also notes that uncirculated 1965 cents are easy to find because many were saved in rolls and bags, which keeps circulated coins close to face value.

No 1965 cent is anywhere near those numbers. In the PCGS Price Guide (September 24, 2026):

• About $2,000,000: the unique 1943-D bronze cent lists at $1,700,000 in MS64 BN, and the 1958 doubled die obverse at $1,140,000 in MS65 RD; the 1943 bronze lists at $1,000,000 in MS63 RD.
• About $7,000: the 1955 doubled die obverse lists at $7,000 in MS64 BN, and the 1936 doubled die obverse type 1 at $7,000 in MS65 RD.

The nearest 1965 figure is $6,500, and only for an MS68 RD coin.