The Lincoln Cent represents the longest continuously running series within United States coinage. While the reverse design has seen some changes at different milestones, the obverse design featuring a bust of Abraham Lincoln by Victor D. Brenner has remained in place for more than 100 years. During this period, the mintages for individual issues have varied widely.
As might be expected, the lower mintage key date coins occur within the early portion of the series when the coins carried the wheat ears reverse design. The primary key date is the 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent, which carried a mintage of 484,000 pieces. Additional semi-key date issues which saw low mintages include the 1914-D at 1,193,000 pieces and the 1931-S at 866,000 pieces.
Mintage levels rose to new heights with the start of the Lincoln Memorial reverse design. During this period, production primarily took place at the Philadelphia and Denver Mint facilities where mintages typically ran into the billions of pieces. In 1982, when the composition was changed from primarily copper to copper coated zinc, the Philadelphia Mint struck more than 10 billion pieces.
In 2009, mintage levels fell to their lowest levels in decades due to the economic conditions and the fact that production was split across four different reverse designs. Levels have since rebounded, with the new Union Shield reverse design issues once again ranging into the billions of pieces.
In 2019, the United States Mint included a 2019-W Lincoln Cent with an uncirculated finish as a premium along with the 2019 Uncirculated Coin Set. The mintage of 346,146 is based on the last known sales for the set.
Lincoln Wheat Cent Mintages
Date Mintage 1909 72,702,618 1909 VDB 27,995,000 1909-S 1,825,000 1909-S VDB 484,000 1910 146,801,218 1910-S 6,045,000 1911 101,177,787 1911-D 12,672,000 1911-S 4,026,000 1912 68,153,060 1912-D 10,411,000 1912-S 4,431,000 1913 76,532,352 1913-D 15,804,000 1913-S 6,101,000 1914 75,238,432 1914-D 1,193,000 1914-S 4,137,000 1915 29,092,120 1915-D 22,050,000 1915-S 4,833,000 1916 131,833,677 1916-D 35,956,000
Lincoln Wheat Cent Mintages continued
Date Mintage 1916-S 22,510,000 1917 196,429,785 1917-D 55,120,000 1917-S 32,620,000 1918 288,104,634 1918-D 47,830,000 1918-S 34,680,000 1919 392,021,000 1919-D 57,154,000 1919-S 139,760,000 1920 310,165,000 1920-D 49,280,000 1920-S 46,220,000 1921 39,157,000 1921-S 15,274,000 1922-D 7,160,000 1923 74,723,000 1923-S 8,700,000 1924 75,178,000 1924-D 2,520,000 1924-S 11,696,000 1925 139,949,000 1925-D 22,580,000 1925-S 26,380,000 1926 157,088,000 1926-D 28,020,000 1926-S 4,550,000 1927 144,440,000 1927-D 27,170,000 1927-S 14,276,000 1928 134,116,000 1928-D 31,170,000
Lincoln Wheat Cent Mintages continued
Date Mintage 1928-S 17,266,000 1929 185,262,000 1929-D 41,730,000 1929-S 50,148,000 1930 157,415,000 1930-D 40,100,000 1930-S 24,286,000 1931 19,396,000 1931-D 4,480,000 1931-S 866,000 1932 9,062,000 1932-D 10,500,000 1933 14,360,000 1933-D 6,200,000 1934 219,080,000 1934-D 28,446,000 1935 245,388,000 1935-D 47,000,000 1935-S 38,702,000 1936 309,632,000 1936-D 40,620,000 1936-S 29,130,000 1937 309,170,000 1937-D 50,430,000 1937-S 34,500,000 1938 156,682,000 1938-D 20,010,000 1938-S 15,180,000 1939 316,466,000 1939-D 15,160,000 1939-S 52,070,000 1940 586,810,000 1940-D 81,390,000 1940-S 112,940,000 1941 887,018,000 1941-D 128,700,000 1941-S 92,360,000 1942 657,796,000 1942-D 206,698,000 1942-S 85,590,000 1943 (Steel Cent) 684,628,670 1943-D (Steel Cent) 217,660,000 1943-S (Steel Cent) 191,550,000
Lincoln Wheat Cent Mintages continued
Date Mintage 1944 1,435,400,000 1944-D 430,578,000 1944-S 282,760,000 1945 1,040,515,000 1945-D 266,268,000 1945-S 181,770,000 1946 991,655,000 1946-D 315,690,000 1946-S 198,100,000 1947 190,555,000 1947-D 194,750,000 1947-S 99,000,000 1948 317,570,000 1948-D 172,637,500 1948-S 81,735,000 1949 217,775,000 1949-D 153,132,500 1949-S 64,290,000 1950 272,635,000 1950-D 334,950,000 1950-S 118,505,000 1951 284,576,000 1951-D 625,355,000 1951-S 136,010,000 1952 186,775,000 1952-D 746,130,000 1952-S 137,800,004 1953 256,755,000 1953-D 700,515,000 1953-S 181,835,000 1954 71,640,050 1954-D 251,552,500 1954-S 96,190,000 1955 330,958,200 1955-D 563,257,500 1955-S 44,610,000 1956 420,745,000 1956-D 1,098,201,100 1957 282,540,000 1957-D 1,051,342,000 1958 252,525,000 1958-D 800,953,300
Lincoln Memorial Cent Mintages
Date Mintage 1959 609,715,000 1959-D 1,279,760,000 1960 586,405,000 1960-D 1,580,884,000 1961 753,345,000 1961-D 1,753,266,700 1962 606,045,000 1962-D 1,793,148,140 1963 754,110,000 1963-D 1,774,020,400 1964 2,648,575,000 1964-D 3,799,071,500 1965 1,497,224,900 1966 2,188,147,783 1967 3,048,667,100 1968 1,707,880,970 1968-D 2,886,269,600 1968-S 258,270,001 1969 1,136,910,000 1969-D 4,002,832,200 1969-S 547,309,631 1970 1,898,315,000 1970-D 2,891,438,900
Lincoln Memorial Cent Mintages continued
Date Mintage 1970-S 693,192,814 1971 1,919,490,000 1971-D 2,911,045,600 1971-S 525,133,459 1972 2,933,255,000 1972-D 2,665,071,400 1972-S 376,939,108 1973 3,728,245,000 1973-D 3,549,576,588 1973-S 317,177,295 1974 4,232,140,523 1974-D 4,235,098,000 1974-S 409,426,660 1975 5,451,476,142 1975-D 4,505,275,300 1976 4,674,292,426 1976-D 4,221,592,455 1977 4,469,930,000 1977-D 4,194,062,300 1978 5,558,605,000 1978-D 4,280,233,400 1979 6,018,515,000 1979-D 4,139,357,254
Lincoln Memorial Cent Mintages continued
Date Mintage 1980 7,414,705,000 1980-D 5,140,098,660 1981 7,491,750,000 1981-D 5,373,235,677 1982 10,712,525,000 1982-D 6,012,979,368 1983 7,752,355,000 1983-D 6,467,199,428 1984 8,151,079,000 1984-D 5,569,238,906 1985 5,648,489,887 1985-D 5,287,399,926 1986 4,491,395,493 1986-D 4,442,866,698 1987 4,682,466,931 1987-D 4,879,389,514 1988 6,092,810,000 1988-D 5,253,740,443 1989 7,261,535,000 1989-D 5,345,467,111 1990 6,851,765,000 1990-D 4,922,894,533 1991 5,165,940,000 1991-D 4,158,442,076 1992 4,648,905,000 1992-D 4,448,673,300 1993 5,684,705,000 1993-D 6,426,650,571 1994 6,500,850,000 1994-D 7,131,765,000
Lincoln Memorial Cent Mintages continued
Date Mintage 1995 6,411,400,000 1995-D 7,128,560,000 1996 6,612,465,000 1996-D 6,510,795,000 1997 4,622,800,000 1997-D 4,576,555,000 1998 5,032,155,000 1998-D 5,225,353,500 1999 5,237,600,000 1999-D 6,360,065,000 2000 5,503,200,000 2000-D 8,774,220,000 2001 4,959,600,000 2001-D 5,374,990,000 2002 3,260,800,000 2002-D 4,028,055,000 2003 3,300,000,000 2003-D 3,548,000,000 2004 3,379,600,000 2004-D 3,456,400,000 2005 3,935,600,000 2005-D 3,764,450,000 2006 4,290,000,000 2006-D 3,944,000,000 2007 3,763,400,000 2007-D 3,638,800,000 2008 2,596,000,000 2008-D 2,849,600,000
2009 Lincoln Bicentennial Cent Mintages
Date Mintage 2009-P Lincoln Cent Birthplace 284,400,000 2009-D Lincoln Cent Birthplace 350,400,000 2009-P Lincoln Cent Formative Years 376,000,000 2009-D Lincoln Cent Formative Years 363,600,000 2009-P Lincoln Cent Professional Life 316,000,000 2009-D Lincoln Cent Professional Life 336,000,000 2009-P Lincoln Cent Presidency 129,600,000 2009-D Lincoln Cent Presidency 198,000,000
Union Shield Cent Mintages
Date Mintage 2010 1,963,630,000 2010-D 2,047,200,000 2011 2,402,400,000 2011-D 2,536,140,000 2012 3,132,000,000 2012-D 2,883,200,000 2013 3,750,400,000 2013-D 3,319,600,000 2014 3,990,800,000 2014-D 4,155,600,000 2015 4,691,300,000 2015-D 4,674,000,000 2016 4,698,000,000 2016-D 4,420,400,000 2017-P 4,361,220,000 2017-D 4,272,800,000 2018 4,066,800,000 2018-D 3,736,400,000 2019 3,542,800,000 2019-D 3,497,600,000 2019-W 346,136 2020 3,560,800,000 2020-D 4,035,600,000
