Old U.S. Coins: Types, Denominations and Values

Coin Mint Marks: Letters, Locations and Valuable Ones

Quick answer

Coin mint marks P, D, S, W, O, CC, C and D explained: which U.S. mint each means, where to find it on every series, and which marks raise value.

Updated 2026-09-25 · Sources: Wikipedia, littletoncoin.com, usacoinbook.com, PCGS CoinFacts

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What are the key facts?

Mints striking today: P Philadelphia, D Denver, S San Francisco, W West Point
Closed mints: O New Orleans, CC Carson City, C Charlotte, D Dahlonega (gold)
No mark at all: 1965–1967 nickels, dimes, quarters and half dollars
When P appeared: 1942–1945 war nickels; 1979 dollar; most coins from 1980; cents only in 2017
Example of a valuable mark: 1914-D cent $185 vs 1914 $2 in Good (PCGS, Sept 24, 2026)

What a coin mint mark is

A coin mint mark is a small letter that shows which mint struck the coin. On U.S. coins struck today the marks are P for Philadelphia, D for Denver, S for San Francisco and W for West Point (Wikipedia). A coin with no letter was usually struck at Philadelphia, because as the first mint it did not use a mark for most of its history (Littleton Coin).

The letter matters because the mints did not make equal numbers of each coin. When one mint struck only a small run of a date, that date and letter together become a key date. See also read coin dates and mint marks.

Every U.S. mint mark and its years

Years of operation from Littleton Coin; first-strike dates from Wikipedia (Littleton Coin, Wikipedia):

P, Philadelphia: 1793 to today. P is used since 1980 on most coins, but not on cents except in 2017.
C, Charlotte, North Carolina: 1838–1861, the first branch mint, opened to coin gold from North Carolina.
D, Dahlonega, Georgia: 1838–1861; an estimated $6 million in gold coins before the Civil War.
O, New Orleans: 1838–1909, over 427 million gold and silver coins.
S, San Francisco: 1854 to today.
CC, Carson City, Nevada: 1870–1893, built for silver from the Comstock Lode.
D, Denver: 1906 to today. Denver's D and Dahlonega's D never overlap in time: a D on a gold coin dated 1838–1861 is Dahlonega; a D dated 1906 or later is Denver.
M, Manila: reopened 1920 under U.S. control with no mint mark; M was used only from 1925 until it closed in 1941.
W, West Point, New York: first struck coins in 1974 with no mint mark; the W first appeared in 1983, on a $10 gold coin for the 1984 Olympics.

Where to find the mint mark on U.S. coins

Front means the side with the portrait; back is the other side.

Lincoln cent (1909–): front, under the date (Wikipedia).
Buffalo nickel: back, centered under FIVE CENTS (Wikipedia).
Jefferson nickel: back, right of Monticello, 1938–1964; a large mark above Monticello on 1942–1945 wartime nickels; front, right of Jefferson's bust, from 1968 (Wikipedia).
Seated Liberty dimes: back, inside the wreath before 1860, below it after 1860; on larger Seated coins, below the eagle (Wikipedia).
Barber dime (1892–1916): back, beneath the wreath (Wikipedia).
Mercury dime (1916–1945): back, between the E of ONE and the base of the olive branch (Wikipedia).
Roosevelt dime: back, left of the torch, 1946–1964; front, above the date, from 1968 (Wikipedia).
Washington quarter from 1968: front, lower right, to the right of Washington's neck (Wikipedia).
Kennedy half dollar: in 1964 on the back, beneath the eagle's claws holding the olive branch; from 1968 on the front, above the date (Wikipedia).
Morgan dollar: back, above the D and O of DOLLAR (Wikipedia).
Peace dollar (1921–1935): see Peace dollar mint mark.

How to tell if a quarter is P or D

On any Washington quarter dated 1968 or later, look at the front, lower right, just to the right of Washington's neck (Wikipedia). A small P means Philadelphia and D means Denver; Wikipedia also lists S and W among the quarter's mint marks.

1980 or later with no letter: not a normal circulation quarter; P has been used since 1980 (Wikipedia). Check it closely.
1968–1979 with no letter: Philadelphia; it did not use a mark then. See 1977 quarter no mint mark.
1965–1967: no quarter has a mint mark, from any mint.
1932–1964 silver quarters: a D or S means Denver or San Francisco and no letter means Philadelphia. The 1932-D and 1932-S are the key dates: USA CoinBook lists them at $121 and $112 in Good (February 2026) (USA CoinBook), and their mint marks have been counterfeited (Wikipedia).

Why some coins have no mint mark

Philadelphia tradition: Philadelphia coins carried no mark for most of U.S. history. P first appeared on the 1942–1945 wartime nickels, which were the first U.S. coins to show Philadelphia's mark (Wikipedia). It returned on the 1979 Susan B. Anthony dollar and on most coins from 1980 (Wikipedia).
Cents are the exception: Lincoln cents from Philadelphia had no P from 1980 to 2016. All 2017 Philadelphia cents got a P for the Mint's 225th anniversary; from 2018 they went back to no mark (Wikipedia).
1965–1967: marks were left off to discourage collectors from hoarding; nickels, dimes, quarters and half dollars of these years have none, and marks came back in 1968 (Wikipedia).
Errors: a worn or over-polished die can leave the mark faint or missing, as on the 1922 "No D" cent from Denver (Wikipedia).

Which mint marks are most valuable

No letter is valuable by itself; what counts is how few coins a mint made of that date. The marks that most often signal a key date:

CC (Carson City): small output, closed in 1893. Only about 2% of Morgan dollars were struck there (Wikipedia). Five of the ten most valuable dimes are CC coins from 1871–1874, led by the 1873-CC No Arrows at $3,737,496 (USA CoinBook, 2026) (USA CoinBook).
S (San Francisco): the 1909-S VDB cent (484,000 released) is $875 in Good (PCGS, September 24, 2026) (Wikipedia, PCGS); the 1893-S Morgan dollar has the series' lowest mintage, 100,000 (Wikipedia); the 1894-S dime, 24 struck, sold for $1,552,500 in 2007 (Wikipedia).
D (Denver): the 1914-D cent is $185 in Good against $2 for a 1914 Philadelphia cent (PCGS, September 24, 2026); the 1916-D dime is $1,247 in Good (USA CoinBook, February 2026) (USA CoinBook).
O, C and D (Dahlonega): 19th-century branch mints that mostly struck silver and gold; any coin from them should be looked up by date.
A missing mark: some error coins are valuable because the mark is absent. The 1922 No D cent (strong reverse) is $550 in Good (PCGS, September 24, 2026); a 1982 dime with no P is $249 in MS65 (USA CoinBook, February 2026) (USA CoinBook); a 1975 proof dime with no S sold for $349,600 in 2011 (Wikipedia).

Same date, different mint: price examples

These pairs show how much the mint mark alone can move the price of a worn coin. All are Good (G4) prices from the PCGS Price Guide for Lincoln cents, September 24, 2026 (PCGS):

1914: $2. 1914-D: $185.
1924: $1. 1924-D: $26.
1931: $1. 1931-D: $5. 1931-S: $70.
1911: $2. 1911-D: $7.

The pattern is not always "branch mint is better": in some years Philadelphia made the smaller run. Always look up the exact date and mark together.

Mint marks on coins from other countries

Other countries use their own systems (Wikipedia):

Germany: letters A to J, each standing for a mint city.
Mexico: a Mo monogram for Mexico City on historic coins.
Canada: maple leaf privy marks.
Spain: stars with different numbers of points.

So a letter on a foreign coin does not mean the same thing as on a U.S. coin. A D on a German coin is a German mint city, not Denver.

Fake and altered mint marks

Because one letter can change a coin's value by hundreds of times, mint marks are a common target for fakes:

The mint marks on the 1932-D and 1932-S quarters have been counterfeited (Wikipedia).
No Denver Mercury dimes were made in 1923 or 1930, so any 1923-D or 1930-D Mercury dime is fake (Littleton Coin).
On a genuine coin the letter looks struck, with the same surface and wear as the metal around it; a mark that looks glued, tooled or sharper than the worn date around it is a warning sign.

More checks: spot counterfeit coins.

How to read a tiny mint mark

Use a 5x to 10x loupe or your phone's zoom, and tilt the coin under one light so the letter throws a shadow.
Look in the spot for that series from the list above; a scratch or die crack elsewhere is not a mint mark.
Confirm the letter matches a mint that was open in that year: a CC on a 1900 coin, for example, cannot be right because Carson City closed in 1893.
A CoinLens scan reads the date and mint mark from a photo and matches the coin to its listing.

How this page was made

This page was researched and drafted with the help of AI, then checked line by line against the sources listed below. Prices are dated and name their source: the PCGS Price Guide for Lincoln cents was read from its September 24, 2026 update; USA CoinBook numismatic values were last updated in February 2026 and its silver portion was read on September 25, 2026. Prices change, and a coin's real value depends on its exact grade and authenticity. Use CoinLens if you want to check a coin before you look it up here.

FAQ

What mint marks are most valuable?

CC (Carson City) is the mark most tied to rarity because the mint made few coins and closed in 1893. S and D can be valuable on specific dates, such as the 1909-S VDB cent ($875 in Good) and 1914-D cent ($185 in Good) per PCGS on September 24, 2026. Missing marks on certain errors, like the 1922 No D cent, are also valuable.

What mint marks to look for on coins?

On U.S. coins look for P, D, S and W (mints open today) and O, CC, C and D on 19th-century coins. Then check the date: CC on a Seated dime from 1871–1874, S on a 1909 VDB cent, D on a 1914 cent or 1916 Mercury dime, and a missing mark on a 1922 cent or 1982 dime are all worth a closer look.

Are coins with mint marks more valuable?

Not automatically. A mark only adds value when that mint made few coins of that date. In PCGS prices of September 24, 2026, a worn 1931-S cent is $70 while a 1931-D is $5 and a 1931 Philadelphia coin $1; in other years Philadelphia is the scarcer one.

How to tell if a quarter is P or D?

On quarters dated 1968 or later, the letter is on the front, lower right, next to Washington's neck. P is Philadelphia and D is Denver. Philadelphia quarters from 1968 to 1979 have no letter, and 1965–1967 quarters have no mint mark at all.

Where is the mint mark on a penny?

On a Lincoln cent it is on the front, under the date. No letter usually means Philadelphia; only 2017 Philadelphia cents carry a P, and W cents from 2019 were made only for collector sets (Wikipedia).

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