The three coins above are three different shots I took of a Lincoln Cent in an old Whitman folder in the 1922-D hole. The question I have is could this be an actual 1922-D or a rare 1922 Lincoln Cent?
Lincoln Cent in 1922
1921 sees the end of the Morgan Dollar and the introduction of the Peace Dollar, but only a little over a million are out that year. The mint decides to add many more silver dollars in 1922. To do this, they dpn’t mint any Buffalo Nickels, Mercury Dimes, Standing Liberty Quarters or Walking Liberty Half Dollars during 1922.
All three mints, Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco produce the new Peace Dollars. With the Philadelphia mint working heavily on minting Peace Dollars, over 51,000,000 minted in 1922, this leaves Denver to mint cents as well as dollars. By the end of the year, Denver produces 7,160,000 Lincoln Wheat Cents and just over 15,000,000 Peace Dollars.
Is it a 1922-D or 1922?
It’s been told that there are three varieties of the 1922-D due to the overuse of the coin dies. The most common 1922 Lincoln Cent has the ‘D’ mint mark, but there are some that have a weaker ‘D’ or no ‘D’ at all. They also say the last ‘2’ is clearer than the other digits, but with the wear of my coin, you can barely see the last ‘2’. Look at the pics of the top of this article, I can’t see a mint mark on this coin.
Now you may say “would no ‘D’ mint mark mean more money?”. Absolutely! A regular 1922-D cent could be worth between $20 and $75 in circulation. A weak ‘D’ cent goes up to between $25 and $150. No ‘D’ mint mark will give you between $600 and $4,500 in circulation. Looking at the wear of my 1922-D Lincoln Cent, if it has no ‘D’, I can be looking at a $600 coin. Woohoo!
Well, I decide to take another picture of it, and…
it looks like it’s a 1922-D. Drat!!! I hope not to find a mint mark, but it looks like there is a ‘D’ under the date. Oh well, it’s still worth $20, and I have it in the right hole in the Whitman folder.
Have you ever had this experience before when you tried to determine what coin you had? Hope you have success finding out what it is. If there is anyone out there who actually has 1922-D Lincoln Wheat Cents with no mint mark, let me know. I’d love to see it!