Not only did the Mint decide to change the composition of the cent this year from a mostly copper brass composition to a pure core of zinc plated in copper, but they also cleaned up the design and changed from a large date design with thick, bulging letters to a smaller and sharper design. This splits one of the larger mintage years of Lincoln cents in history into seven different total issues. Of those issues, this one was the most common, however condition tends to be an issue because of storage and a lack of preservation.

Due to rather extreme issues managing to mint these coins without gas bubbles and tarnishing, finding these coins in GEM condition is a true challenge. Often the poor quality of this issue lends to black carbon spotting and color changes. Because they are difficult to locate in GEM condition, the price for these is a little higher, but still well worth saving the headache of trying to hunt for one.

This item is a general stock item, meaning we stock a quantity of these items that all have very similar appearance. For that reason, the images you see of this item are representative of the quality of coin you will receive, but is NOT the actual coin you will receive when ordering this item.

As a seller I believe in full disclosure by way of a detailed description and large, clear photographs when warranted, but many less expensive and bulk items make more sense to carry with 'sample' photographs rather than photographing each individual lot sold. For that reason, if the description above specifies that a stock image is used, be aware that the items you will receive are in like kind to the images provided, but WILL NOT be the exact same items.

Charles D. Daughtrey is the founder and owner of coppercoins and has been a specialist in the Lincoln cent for more than 40 years. He is the author and developer of the attribution system now used across the Lincoln cent die variety market commonly known as the "coppercoins die attribution system" for die varieties such as doubled dies and repunched mintmarks. He is the author of, "Looking Through Lincoln Cents, a Chronology of a Series," and is a member of the Numismatic Literary Guild, the American Numismatic Association, Florida United Numismatists, and the Central States Numismatic Society as well as other local and national numismatic clubs.