One Cent Wheat Penny Value: What Wheat Coins Are Worth

Most one cent wheat pennies are worth about 5 to 35 cents each. The Red Book figures quoted by JM Bullion put a common 1944 cent at $0.20 in Extremely Fine and $0.35 Uncirculated, and a coin shop sells mixed 1940s and 1950s wheat cents at $5.25 per roll of 50, about 10.5 cents each (Northern Illinois Coin & Stamp, listed September 25, 2026). A dealer buying from you pays less than that retail price.

The exceptions are worth far more. PCGS lists (September 24, 2026) the 1909-S VDB at $875 even in Good condition, the 1914-D at $185 and the 1931-S at $70 in Good. The famous errors run to six and seven figures; the full ranking is on most valuable wheat pennies.

A wheat penny, also called a wheat cent or wheatie, is a U.S. Lincoln cent from 1909 to 1958. It gets its name from the two ears of wheat on the reverse; in 1959 the back changed to the Lincoln Memorial (Wikipedia). It was the first widely circulating U.S. coin with a president's portrait.

People sometimes search for it as a hay penny. The stalks are wheat, not hay, so hay penny value and wheat penny value mean the same coin. Do not confuse it with the British ha'penny, the old halfpenny, pronounced "hay-penny", which stopped being legal tender on July 31, 1969 (Wikipedia). If your coin shows Lincoln and ONE CENT, this page applies; if it shows a British monarch and HALF PENNY, it is a different coin.

Value depends on the year, the mint mark under the date, the grade and the color, in that order of checking.

• Key dates (always worth checking): 1909-S VDB, 1909-S, 1914-D, 1922 with no mint mark, 1931-S. The S and D coins of 1910 to 1926 also carry premiums in any grade; see rare penny years.
• Errors and varieties: 1943 cents that do not stick to a magnet, 1944 cents that do, and doubled dies such as 1955, 1917 and 1958.
• Everything else: common in worn condition. From the late 1930s to 1958 most dates are only worth more than a few cents in Mint State with original red color.

Every year from 1909 to 1958 has its own page with mintage and PCGS prices by grade, starting from the Lincoln penny value list.

• Mint mark: find the small S or D under the date. For the key dates above, that letter is the difference between a few cents and hundreds of dollars.
• Wear on the wheat ears: JM Bullion's test is to look at the parallel lines at the top of the wheat stalks. If they are still crisp, the coin is likely Fine or better; if they are worn away, it is a lower grade.
• Color: red (RD) coins are worth much more than red-brown (RB) or brown (BN) ones in the same grade.
• VDB: on 1909 coins, look for the initials V.D.B. at the bottom of the reverse between the wheat stalks.
• Metal: a 1943 should stick to a magnet and a 1944 should not.

If a coin passes one of these checks, a certified grade from PCGS or NGC is what the market pays for. Guide prices assume a certified coin.

Keep them sorted, not in a jar. Set aside the key dates, any 1943 or 1944 with the wrong metal and any coin with strong doubling; these are worth researching one by one. The rest are best kept or sold as a group: a buyer pays per roll or per bag, and at the retail prices above a roll of 50 common wheats is worth only about five dollars.

The end of penny production does not change this. The U.S. Mint struck its last circulation cent on November 12, 2025, when a cent cost 3.69 cents to make (Wikipedia, Penny). Wheat cents have been out of production since 1958, and hundreds of millions survive, so their value comes from date, mint and condition, not from the penny being discontinued.

Do not clean them. A cleaned coin loses most of its collector premium.

• Local coin shops buy common wheats in bulk, below the retail roll and bag prices shown above, and can look at key dates in person.
• Online marketplaces list bulk rolls and single coins; asking prices are not sale prices, so compare sold listings.
• Auction houses and grading services are only worth it for certified key dates and errors. PCGS and NGC both grade and authenticate Lincoln cents.

Before you ask for offers, know which coins are ordinary. Photographing each side with the app identifies date, mint mark and known varieties; see the coin value guide for how dealers arrive at an offer.

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.