Key Dates for Business Strike Memorial Cents

Nobody seems to appreciate collecting the series. Yes, IMO, there are key dates. OK, so they're not that hard to find, but I consider them "key" because of mintage. Try to find well-struck, spotless, EDS, MS65+ red coins. Pay attention to the memorial steps. Finding coins with complete, well-formed and hit-free steps is a challenge. I add a designation stolen from the nickel collectors, FULL STEPS, complete end-to-end steps on the Memorial.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_date

Here's the mintage figures for UNDER one billion "key dates". I've also added the FS (Full Steps) designation for the years I know it's possible. For some years the master die had worn steps, so FS is not possible.

KEY DATES BY MINTAGE (less than 1 billion)

1970S SD < 1,000,000 (unknown, estimated)
1960 SD 2,000,000 (unknown, estimated)
1968 S 261,311,510 FS
1973 S 319,937,634 FS
1972 S 380,200,104
1974 S 412,039,228 FS
1971 S 528,354,192
1969 S 547,309,631
1960 P 588,096,602
1962 P 609,263,019 FS
1959 P 610,864,291 FS
1970 S 693,192,814
1961 P 756,373,244 FS
1963 P 757,185,645

SEMI-KEY DATES BY MINTAGE (less than 2 billion)

1969 P "1,136,910,000"
1959 D "1,279,760,000"
1965 P "1,497,224,900"
1960 D "1,580,884,000"
1968 P "1,707,880,970"
1961 D "1,753,266,700"
1963 D "1,774,020,400"
1962 D "1,793,148,400"
1970 P "1,898,315,000"
1971 P "1,919,490,000"

http://www.badthad.com/coin/memorial_mintage.xls

I would also specutlate that possibly some of the 1982 zinc coins may fall into the key criteria, but no separate mintage number exist that I'm aware of. If you have another Memorial you might consider "key", please let me know. I'm not including errors, varieties or proofs.
If you have an FS example of any of the years I'm missing it for, I'd like to hear about it. I've not been able to locate FS coins for those years.

Ben Peters lists the following tough Memorials:

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Great post. I'll keep an eye out for those dates now. IMO there are too many steps to give it a designation. The Jeffersons are nice and simple.

 

I guess you are excluding varieties and proofs. Some of those DD are rather rare - most notably the 69-S and 72. However, the interesting coins are the proofs. Not counting the no "S", this series has most of the lowest regular mintages of the entire Lincoln series. After the 09-S, the next 6 rarest Lincoln are these proofs.

 

Good post.

 

I wish someone knew the actual number of 1970-S small date memorials. I believe it is well under 1 million. I've saved every 1970-S penny for the last 15 years (until I figured out the difference) and none of them are what I'd hoped!

 

As stated in the thread, regular biz strikes.

Yes, the proofs are an interesting series in mintage terms themselves, which is why I have a complete collection of them. I've screamed to collectors until I'm blue in the face....I believe the entire Lincoln proof series to be the most under-valued coins in collecting.

 

how about the 1982's

ive kept track of all the 82's that i come across my table and the 82P small date Cu is the lowest. My total is 130 out of 2991 "P"s

and the 82D's the large date ZN is the lowest of the 3 types
for me its 9 out of 281 that pass by me, but this number is low because im in NYS. i think that this might be around 200 million range?

What about SMS coins they are business strikes but not proofs either.

Like in 2006 they made & sold 847,361 from each mint. would you put that in the list ?

Snowman

 

I mentioned the 82's in the OP. I agree, but unfortunately, the mint didn't keep track of the individual numbers produced for each type. Like you, I have seen from my seaching that the zinc 82's across the board are rarer than the coppers....especially the 82-D LG Zn.

I have not listed the mint set coins as to me, they really are no different from the biz strikes and if you had a pile of mixed cents, you wouldn't be able to differentiate them. Are their population totals included with the biz strikes? hummmmmmm

So far I'm a bit surprized by this thread. When I posted on a different forum, I had to deal with a lot of people claiming there are NO KEY DATES for the Memorial series.

 

Well, this is what I study everyday and,

Well, this is what I study everyday and I do not use the mintage figures at all - I use the 20,000 plus BU memorial rolls I have dumped out on this desk and here are my tough memorials.

1969-P & D ( sometimes the "D's" come nice but generally are worn out, overused dies with clashes out the wazoo.
1971-S, 72-S, 73-S, & 74-S, with 1974-S then 73-S being the worst 2.
1982-P small date zinc.
1978 & 79 P & D
Many 1982 thru 1985 P's and D's before the plating problems were corrected - sometimes they are nice sometimes not.
2000-P (hard to find EDS early die states)
2003-P & D (same thing as above, some with weak strikes)


The primary reason IMO your analysis using mintage figures could be considered flawed is they were all minted to excess and in numbers that should guarantee available coins for collectors but some just were not saved.
Look at the 1986-P & D Lincoln or the 1983-P quarter for instance.

One more thing, to then combine gem quality with full steps for memorials you will never get them. Just like the nickels some years will not exist - I'm sorry and I would love if you were to prove me wrong but "I've seen a lot of Lincoln cents and just getting gem is hard enough and soon the coin collecting community will find out that the spot free, perfect Lincoln's they thought they could wait and get for 25 or 30 cents will be $2 or $3 and you will be lucky to get them at that - wait and see!!!!!!!

 

AWESOME POST! That's exactly the type of information I'm looking for. I'm going to add your summary to my personal collecting notes I've been working on for years. Thank you!

I agree 100% with the flaw of using mintage figures! While technically correct, from a practical standpoint, your observations are more consistent with what I see while roll searching. I have to say I think the entire 83-89 run coins are generally HORRIBLE.

As far as the steps, you are 100% correct again! Believe me, I've searched a helluv a lot of coins seeking gem + full steps. Not only due to MDS/LDS, in some years the master dies were had flawed steps so there's no hope. A FS example will never be discovered! Have you seen any FS coins that I didn't list above? Those years completely elude me!

I hear you....collectors are going to come to the plate too late and realize they shouldn't have been ignoring the series. I have many Memorials with book values of 35 cents that I would not sell for $100! People laugh at me when I tell them I've spent 10x the time on my Memorial series compared to my Wheats.....but it's absolutely true!

 

Yes I have seen and a couple of other things

Yes I have seen 1959 thru 1963 pretty much all with full steps but remember,
I have search a bunch! Not only that but those years/dates almost always are the ones found in hoards because they were on the tail end of "the roll keeping phase". I'll show my age here once I bought a roll of 1960-P smdt for $40 I think and the guy said they were full steps and beautiful and he was right they were.
The old timers used to also use "full Beard" designation for the Lincoln's from 09 thru the teens - talk about tough, wow!
My set that I have put together from 59 to date is at least a MS-67 average - I have many MS-68's I am certain, it took me over 20 years to put that set up practically all from mint sets, numerous mint sets.
It's not that there are no 1959 thru 1964's out there in early die state there are but they made so many to sift through.
Now the dates that will not have any (steps and early dies) in my searching are:
1965, 66, 67, 68, 69
1975 thru 1979 - 1980 & 81 - some of the 7 varieties in the 82's particularly the zinc ones.
1983 thru 1989

Seriously, I only get about 150 pieces out of a 2500 brick ever that I am willing to put my name.reputation on it.
Last week I went thru a 2008-D box and only got about 120 that meet my needs, I am very tough. Not only do you have the coins beat up and scratched but with those little black rinse spots all over them - it's a challenge.
It's only logical that this, (modern gems) is the next frontier for Lincoln's after folks figure it out.
So it begs the question,
How much is a 1986-P in MS-68 really worth?????

 

Ben, thanks again for the post. Your insight and understanding of the Memorial series are very valuable to me. I've only been serious about collecting them for the past year or so....you have much more experience and I can learn a lot from you. I really appreciate that.

My brother lives in Knoxville, I'm down there on occassion, perhaps we can meet some day? I just saw in your profile that you run the "Knoxville coin show", please give me some details on that. I would definately be interested in driving down for a coin show and to meet you.

I love this question! I watch people scramble and pull out their Red Book and tell you about 50 cents.....then I hear you laughing at them...as I would. I get laughed at all the time for being serious about the Memorials, I don't care.....WE WILL BE VINDICATED someday.

 

In addition to the strike issues and the marking that plagues many dates there's a far more insidious problem that is going to make attractive coins quite rare for some dates; corrosion.

Already every single 1968-P cent from mint sets has carbon spots either small or huge and 95% of these are very ugly. The '84-D seems to be headed the same way.

While all these cents were made as gems and all dates were saved in large numbers the simple fact is that time has not been kind to them. Low values causes them to end up in circulation and proper storage often isn't afforded. Since people haven't collected them the attrition on gems has been as high as the attrition on junk.

As has been noted only a small proportion of some datyes are gems so when huge numbers of raw coins ends up at the tender mercies of time and tide it means that many of these coins will be scarer in high grade than their older counterparts.

I used to go to coin shows and bet people I could find more well struck gem '09-S VDB's than he could find well struck gem '72-D's. The former coin went for hundreds and hundreds of dollars but if I could find the latter it was probably going to be a dime.


Even today...

!!!

 

Next Show Sat. March 14th Budget Inns of America, 323 N. Cedar Bluff road across from McDonals times: 8:30 to 4:00
You can also always find it online or contact me direct a 865/363/7112
Thanks,
Ben

 

Great thread!!! I'm seeing a lot of the same things while bag searching copper... Very informative!!!

 

What's the web address? I probably won't make this months show, but I want to keep an eye on show dates so I'm ready when the opportunity presents itself.

Thanks

 

Excellent post! :smile

 

Ben - I finally got around to digesting all the helpful information you posted. You said this:

For 1968-PDS and 1969-P I am in possession of a full steps example for each.

 

Finally found a 2006 BU with most of the steps! I had come to the conclusion that an FS example was impossible...this coin gave me a glimmer of hope. Has anyone seen an FS 2006? The step 6-12 area is always smooth, except on this one.

 

Wow guys. This was great. Very helpful. I have seen Jello post some very high grade memorials and the Jack Lee Collection had some memorials MS 68's or 69's? that went for the thousands. That sparked my curiosity. I will keep this post and use as a reference.