(OK, you're probably all Lincoln cent collectors. ) I understand why the 1909-S VDB is the "king of Lincoln cents". It has the lowest mintage (484,000). However, the 1914-D, with nearly 2 1/2 times the mintage (1,193,000), is far more expensive. My theory is that 1909-S VDB's were hoarded, so there are many more of them in mint state. Somewhat against this theory is that the 1931-S which has a lower mintage than the 1914-D (866,000) is much less expensive and high-grade mint state examples can be found for just a few hundred dollars. I know of no reason people would have hoarded them. How can people explain the relative values of the two?
You are correct for the 1909-S VDB. First year issues are commonly saved. As for the 1931-S, There were 2 collectors in the Pittsburgh, Pa. area who heard that there were very few cents minted in SF. They wrote around to all of the Fed. Res. banks and finally located 2 bags at the Seattle bank and bought both. 2 bags may not sound like much today, but that is over 1% of the total production. I met one of them ~1970 (sorry, don't remember the name). He told me that they sold a few rolls early on at $1.00 per roll. By the mid 40's, they were getting $1.00 per coin when they needed some cash. I do not have the proof, but my assumption is that is the main reason that the 31-S unc is comparably cheap. Anyway, that resulted is at least 10,000 unc 31-S out there while NGC and PCGS has only graded less than 5,000 TOTAL 1914-D's in any grade.
Amazing! Now, where else but CoinTalk could I find out about THAT story? Thanks. It certainly would explain the price difference.
