I just went through about 250 weat pennies and I found plenty of all dates ranging from 1939-1959 (I save the '59s anyways...). There were only 2 years I only found 1 or 2 of out of them all: 1952 (found 2) and 1954 (only found 1). Mostly what I found was 1953 (must be one of the larger weat years...) I'd say 150 out of the 250 I went through was 1953. So it would make sense that the years surrounding this large weat year would be smaller? Please help me. I spend most of my time over on the other side in the paper currency forum, but I still know some about coin and I still do collect so please don't hate lol.
I don't think they are...not the Philadelphia ones, anyway. However, I find that Unc rolls of 1952-S wheats go for very hefty prices on eBay...don't know why. 1952-S circulated rolls sell for normal prices.
250 coins isn't a real big sample to compare something to, but given that, the '54 is one of the lower mintages from the '40's and '50's. It's comprable to some of the 40's s mintages and it's not surprising to not find them in any quantity. The '52 is another matter, with a mintage of a hundred and something million it's curious that you didn't find more of them.