1955-S Lincoln Head Penny

The 1955-S Lincoln cent was a coin that had an immediate audience because of one simple factor: It had been announced that 1955 would be the final year of coin production at San Francisco. For Lincoln cent collectors, that was enormously important.

An end to San Francisco coin production loomed large in the minds of everyone as it was really the heart and soul of Lincoln cent collecting. That made the 1955-S a date everyone had to own.

As it turned out, the 1955-S was a fitting representative of San Francisco. It had a mintage of 44,610,000. It was not only the lowest Lincoln cent mintage of 1955, but it was also the lowest since the late 1930s. There was a scramble, and the 1955-S was a lot tougher to find in circulation than its mintage suggested.

There was extensive hoarding of the 1955-S, although we really have no records of anyone with 7 million pieces. What was happening was that every collector wanted a roll and every small dealer wanted 10 rolls as opposed to one person trying to corner the market. All those small hoards now more than 50 years later have kept the supply of the 1955-S better than might be expected and the price lower, even in MS-65.