Valuable Wheat Cents: Most Valuable Pennies and Prices

The valuable wheat cents fall into three groups: wartime metal errors (the 1943 bronze and 1944 steel cents), low-mintage key dates (1909-S VDB, 1914-D, 1922 No D, 1931-S) and strong doubled dies (1955, 1958, 1917). Almost every other wheat penny is a common date worth well under a dollar in worn condition; its value rises only in top grades with original red color.

All prices below are from the PCGS Price Guide as updated on September 24, 2026, in U.S. dollars, for coins graded and certified by PCGS. G4 is Good (heavily worn), XF40 is Extremely Fine (light wear), MS is Mint State (no wear); RD, RB and BN mean red, red-brown and brown copper color. An ungraded coin with the same date usually sells for less.

• 1943 bronze (copper) cent: $235,000 in XF40 BN and $1,000,000 in MS63 RD for the Philadelphia coin (PCGS says 10 to 15 known). The 1943-S bronze is listed at $175,000 in XF40 up to $1,000,000 in MS63 (5 known) and the unique 1943-D bronze at $1,700,000 in MS64 BN. Details on the 1943 penny page.
• 1958 Doubled Die Obverse: $340,000 in MS64 RD and $1,140,000 in MS65 RD; three are known.
• 1944 steel cent: $46,000 in MS60 up to $170,000 in MS64 (an estimated 25 to 30 known). The 1944-D steel is $55,000 to $165,000 (7 known) and the 1944-S steel $525,000 in MS66 (2 known). See the 1944 penny page.
• 1922 No D, Strong Reverse: $550 in G4, $2,250 in XF40, $275,000 in MS64 RD.
• 1909-S VDB: $875 in G4, $1,500 in XF40, $150,000 in MS67 RD. See the 1909 penny page.
• 1955 Doubled Die Obverse: $875 in G4, $2,000 in XF40, $65,000 in MS65 RD.
• 1917 Doubled Die Obverse: $90 in G4, $1,400 in XF40, $92,500 in MS67 RD.
• 1914-D: $185 in G4, $850 in XF40, $85,000 in MS66 RD.
• 1931-S: $70 in G4, $120 in XF40, $45,000 in MS67 RD.
• 1909-S (without VDB): $90 in G4, $200 in XF40, $25,000 in MS67 RD.

The list is ordered by what a typical surviving example is worth, not only by the single highest price, so the coins you have a realistic chance of finding in an old jar (1909-S, 1914-D, 1931-S) are included next to the famous errors.

If you are sorting a jar of wheat pennies, these date and mint combinations had the smallest circulation mintages (figures from the Lincoln cent mintage tables on Wikipedia). Put any of them aside and check the grade before selling:

• 1909-S VDB: 484,000
• 1931-S: 866,000
• 1914-D: 1,193,000
• 1909-S: 1,825,000
• 1924-D: 2,520,000
• 1911-S: 4,026,000
• 1912-S: 4,431,000
• 1926-S: 4,550,000
• 1915-S: 4,833,000
• 1910-S: 6,045,000
• 1913-S: 6,101,000
• 1922 with no mint mark (all 1922 cents were struck at Denver, so a 1922 without a D is a die variety; the table notes that many counterfeits exist)

The mint mark sits under the date. A coin with no letter from these years was struck at Philadelphia, which made far more coins; it is the S or D that matters.

Some wheat cents are cheap in worn condition but expensive when perfectly preserved, because very few were saved with full red color. PCGS lists, for example:

• 1926-S: $10 in G4 but $125,000 in MS65 RD.
• 1917-S: $2 in G4 but $120,000 in MS66 RD.
• 1911: $2 in G4 but $125,000 in MS68 RD.
• 1924-D: $26 in G4 but $75,000 in MS66 RD.

The top-grade figures describe a handful of coins. A worn example of the same date is worth the G4 figure or less, so do not price a circulated coin from the top of the chart.

Many searches for rare pennies mean any Lincoln cent, not only wheat backs. The modern cents worth real money are varieties, and PCGS lists them as follows (September 24, 2026):

• 1969-S Doubled Die Obverse: $28,500 in MS60 BN up to $605,000 in MS66 RD; PCGS notes about 100 known.
• 1992 Close AM: $2,600 in MS60 BN up to $32,500 in MS67 RD. The 1992-D Close AM (about 15 known) is $2,100 to $12,250.
• 1972 Doubled Die Obverse: $240 in MS60 BN up to $23,500 in MS68 RD.
• 1998 Wide AM: $10 in MS60 BN up to $6,000 in MS68 RD.
• 1995 Doubled Die Obverse: $3 in MS60 BN; only a perfect MS69 RD reaches $3,250.

The 1992 cent is valuable only with the Close AM reverse: from 1959 to 1992 the letters A and M in AMERICA should be clearly separated, and the close, almost touching AM reverse was meant for 1993 and later (Pat's Lincoln Cent Collection). The designer's initials FG also sit farther from the Memorial building on the Close AM reverse. See the 1992 penny page.

• 1958 Doubled Die, PCGS MS65RD: $1,136,250 at GreatCollections in January 2023, a seven-figure result for the variety. Earlier sales of the variety: $25,025 in 1996, $57,500 in 2000 and $336,000 in March 2018 (CoinWeek).
• 1943-D bronze, the only one known: bought for $1.7 million in 2010, then sold for $840,000 at Heritage in June 2021 (CoinWeek). The same coin first sold at auction for $82,500 in 1996.
• 1944-S steel, PCGS MS66: $408,000 when the Simpson collection was sold in 2021; it was offered again at GreatCollections on January 5, 2025 (CoinWeek).
• Final 2025 cents: the U.S. Mint struck its last circulation cent on November 12, 2025, and 232 sets of the final cents sold for $16.76 million in total (Wikipedia, Lincoln cent). This ended new production; it did not make older wheat cents rare.

The 1943-D result shows that even a unique coin can resell for less than its previous price, which is why guide values are a reference, not an offer.

• Read the date and mint mark under a magnifier in angled light. Set aside any date and mint on the list above.
• Use a magnet on 1943 and 1944 cents. A 1943 should stick (steel); a 1944 should not (brass). The opposite result is either a major error or a fake, so it needs authentication.
• Weigh it if you can. A normal bronze wheat cent weighs 3.11 g and a 1943 steel cent about 2.7 g (Wikipedia, 1943 steel cent).
• Look for doubling in LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST and the date. Strong doubled dies (1955, 1958, 1917) show two clearly separated, rounded outlines; flat, shelf-like doubling is machine damage and adds nothing.
• Do not clean it. Cleaning lowers the grade permanently.

For a coin that passes these checks, a certified grade from PCGS or NGC is what turns a guide price into a sale price. Photographing both sides with the app gives a first identification of date, mint mark and variety before you pay for grading; see rare coin identifier.

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.