![]() Perhaps you will want your type set in Mint State, to show the coin in all its beauty, and a well-made Lincoln cent is a beautiful coin. It’s a good idea to have your matte proof Lincolns professionally graded and slabbed, so there is no question as to their proof status.Ĭollectors on a lower budget may want a type set of Lincoln cents. Quite a few matte proofs were spent by collectors who disliked the surface and wanted brilliant proofs. One, perhaps the best known specimen, recently sold for nearly half a million dollars. The big coin in this limited set is the 1909 VDB, with only a few hundred issued. Only nine coins come to a complete set, but finding these coins, especially problem-free cents, can take years of searching, and a good budget. Want a real challenge? Try a set of matte proof Lincoln cents. ![]() While not proofs, these coins are nice in their own way, and represent the best products the Mint had to offer during the coin shortage and the advent of clad coins. Fans of proof coins may want to build a collection of only the San Francisco proofs from 1968 to date.Ĭollectors who admire the best the Mint has to offer might even want to include the Special Mint Set cents of 1965-1967. Proof coin production was suspended until 1968, when proofs again were made, but at San Francisco. The Philadelphia Mint struck proofs until 1964. It may take some searching to find spot-free proofs that are not impaired, but your reward is a beautiful set of Wheat-back Lincoln cents, specially struck, showing off the design in great detail. Brilliant proofs of the wheat cents were made from 1936-1942, and again from 1950-1958. Proof coins were made for many years in the Lincoln series, in both the Wheat-back and Memorial types. Finding Mint State cents of these years is not hard, and a lovely set of bright red cents, in high grade, can be yours for a low cost. Don’t forget, the first Memorial cents are more than 50 years old now. No major rarities are found in this set, so a collector may want a date and mintmark set, or just a year set. The Memorial reverse, used from 1959-2008, makes a set in itself. Completists may want one of each date, including the Lincoln Memorial cents. Old-fashioned collectors may want to save only the cents with the wheat-ear reverse. There are definite differences, even though it is the same basic portrait of Lincoln. ![]() Look at a cent of 1909, one from the 1950s, a 1968, a 1969, and a few more recent issues. More differences are apparent in later years. The coins of 1968 look rather mushy, with the 1969 cents much better, after the master die was re-engraved. As the years went on, the portrait appeared less and less detailed, and the difference is obvious when you have a set in front of you. The first Lincoln cents show great detail, even in Lincoln’s beard and bow tie. Such a set of Lincoln cents can show how the portrait of our 16th President has changed over the years.
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