Going through rolls of cents and.......

This is the second "S" mint mark that I have found so far. Am I correct in thinking that if a cent has an "S" mint mark on it that it came out of a proof/mint set? Something I should set aside? They are both 73 "S".

 

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No, look at the red book. San Francisco made business strikes that year.

 

No, Lincoln Cents were also minted (business strikes) in San Francisco from 1968-1974. Just two normal circulated Lincoln Memorial Cents, or, in another light, one opinion.

 

Ahh, thank you Lon. I'm learning something new every day!!

 

While it's not a proof, generally the San Francisco coins always have a lower mintage. So it's worth saving just for fun anyway.

 

I set my S minted Memorial cents aside as they are quite a bit more scarce than the issues from the other two mints. That shiny 1973-S you found belongs in an album, a tube or a 2x2. I've got several rolls of all 7 dates.

 

Since my memory isn't the greatest and I just started out crh I am sorting all of my coins in to separate date and mints (in tubes) and then when I get a full tube I wrap them in a wrapper and will go through them later. I know at the time it is double work and people may find it humorous however I want to get one of those penny error books before I go and let something slip away that I should be keeping.

 

From my roll searching experience - I save all S mint cents, for some reason here on the east coast I find the '73-S is the most elusive. The '68-S has the smallest mintage of the whole Lincoln Memorial series but I find more of them than the '73-S that had a much larger mintage. The most common finds are '69-S and '70-S in the made for circulation. I have also found the occasional proof cent, the best was a '75-S.

 

Well, the 73-S is the 2nd scarcest of them actually, while the 69-S and 70-S are the most common in terms of mintage. One of these days I will begin the arduous task of sorting my S-mint Lincoln Memorial bin (coffee can) so I will know exactly how many I have of each date.

 

John, how have you acquired all your cents throughout the years? Pocket change or bank?

 

I don't know why but it's cool to find an S mint coin.

 

Both. Though the past 6 1/2 months, it's mostly been through coin roll hunting.

 

It just seems that the '73-S might not have gotten a wider distribution like the other dates because I might find one of them for every 5-6 '68-S. Of course being on the Beast coast doesn't help matters. When I have been out to the left coast I have actually gotten S mint cents in change.

 

That's very strange... I know if I total mine up, the totals align pretty closely to the mintages. I own close to 3,000 of them for the 7 years. How many S-mint Memorials do you have total? I know I personally have some strange anomalies in my CRH. For instance, of the 52 War Nickels I've found, only one so far has been the very common 1945-P.

And yes, S mint cents to show up in change on the Left coast... even wheat cents sometimes - I got a 1944-S the other day, along with (strangely) a 1969 Philly (a coin which is tough to find out here).

 

On the Beast coast I find mostly '43-'45-P war nickels, I then find the S mints and only very rarely D mints. I think I have maybe 15 rolls of war nickels from roll searches. The D's are the little stinkers - I celebrate when I find one.

I never sorted the S mint memorials out, I just wrapped them up and then boxed them and have about three boxes of them all total. The S mint wheats, have found as far back as '17-S go in with all the other wheats. I believe I have about five boxes of wheats.

 

I find very few D mint marks also.

 

S-mintmarked cents are always keepers!

 

Out here on the West coast we celebrate the D-mint War Nickel finds as well. The 1943-S is the most common find for me, followed by the 1943-P. So far I've found 54 War Nickels total. The breakdown by mint: 21 P, 29 S, and only 4 D. I have found 3 44-Ds and 1 45-D.... I will really celebrate when I get a 43-D!

 

This is a proof from 1972. Can you see the difference?