1958 Lincoln Cent : A Collector’s Guide

By Christopher Bulfinch, Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker for CoinWeek Notes …..
 

1958 marked the tip of an period for the Lincoln Cent. What began as a public tribute to the Nice Emancipator on the centennial of his beginning had largely gone unchanged since its 1909 debut. For the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, the Eisenhower Administration retired the Wheat Ears reverse created by Victor David Brenner in favor of a brand new reverse honoring the Lincoln Memorial. The Memorial, which sits prominently on the finish of the Nationwide Mall in Washington, D.C., was designed by famous artist Daniel Chester French and was constructed from 1914 by way of ’22, beginning 5 years after the launch of the Lincoln Cent.

The brand new reverse design was the work of United States Mint Assistant Engraver Frank Gasparro. Earlier than taking his flip as Chief Engraver, Gasparro was tasked with designing the reverse of the cent and Kennedy Half Greenback. Gasparro was a satisfactory artist who was pleasant with the numismatic neighborhood. Finest remembered for his Eisenhower Greenback and Susan B. Anthony Greenback designs, his Lincoln Memorial Cent reverse might be his most artistically profitable contribution to United States coinage.

As for the ultimate Wheat Cents struck at Philadelphia, the P-Mint produced solely 252,525,000 cash, giving the 1958 Lincoln Cent one of many decrease postwar cent mintages. By comparability, the Denver Mint in 1958 far surpassed its japanese counterpart, producing greater than 800 million.

In his insightful 2005 reference e-book The Full Information to Lincoln Cents, the late numismatist David Lange attributed the smaller mintage to the Mint’s manufacturing of world cash and the 1958 recession. Certainly, the U.S. Mint was nonetheless producing massive portions of cash for Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, the Philippines, and Venezuela, per the 1959 Mint Administrators’ Report describing the Mint’s world coin manufacturing in calendar 12 months 1958. The U.S. and world economies entered a reasonably severe recession in 1957 that lasted into 1958. Many economists attribute the recession to coverage measures adopted by the Federal Reserve to fight postwar inflation and downturns within the car and housing sectors.

Even with its lower-than-typical mintage, the coin roll craze of the Fifties and ’60s, together with the coin’s “final of its sort” standing, ensured that numerous Mint State Crimson examples of the 1958 Lincoln Cent would survive.

Like different Fifties Lincoln Cents, the date continues to be extremely widespread and considerable in all grades under the uppermost extremity of its inhabitants. Lange writes that “1958-P cents are available in any and all grades by way of totally Crimson Gem. Most uncirculated cash, nevertheless, are of merely common high quality.”

The Well-known Million Greenback 1958 Lincoln Cent Doubled Die

Amongst Lincoln Cents produced on the Philadelphia Mint in 1958 is without doubt one of the collection’ most notable doubled die obverse varieties. Its doubling is clear on the entire obverse textual content, although weakest on the date. Knowledgeable consensus holds that these items had been smuggled out of the Philadelphia Mint after employees seen the doubling, maybe hoping to capitalize on collector curiosity. The 2009 Fifth Version of the Cherrypickers’ Information to Uncommon Die Types of United States Cash says that “the one identified specimens got here both straight or not directly from an worker of the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia.” The Cherrypickers’ Information continues: “No specimens have been reported being present in circulation, wheat cent luggage, BU rolls, or different signifies that would result in credibility of a real unintended launch from the mint.”

The variability was recognized in 1983 or ’84; Lincoln Cent selection skilled John Wexler included it in his 1984 e-book The Lincoln Cent Doubled Die. It is usually included within the Crimson E book and has been for many years.

On January 22, 2023, one of many three identified 1958 DDO Lincoln Cents crossed the block in a GreatCollections public sale for over $1 million together with Purchaser’s Premium. Its itemizing described it as “King of the Doubled Dies”, a troublesome sobriquet to contest. One other instance bought in a Stack’s Bowers public sale for $336,000 in March 2018.

Many non-collectors mistake unusual 1958 Lincoln Cents, particularly these with minor machine doubling or different minor manufacturing irregularities, as DDOs. Much less-than-scrupulous sellers on eBay and websites like it is going to go non-DDO cash off as real. Keep away from such listings and purchase notable errors and varieties solely from established sellers.

What Is the 1958 Lincoln Cent Price?

The 1958 Lincoln Cent is widespread in circulated situation, and has a worth of about 5 cents. In Mint State, this worth ranges from about $1 for an uncertified coin in typical situation to an astonishing $10,000 if its among the many best identified.

Uncirculated 50-coin rolls are regularly bought on eBay for costs starting from $10 to $20 every.

1000’s of grading occasions of the date are recorded in each companies’ inhabitants stories, with various levels of authentic mint crimson shade. Whereas the inhabitants stories on the third-party grading companies skew in favor of Gem+ Mint State Crimson cash and don’t characterize the true variety of extant cash, the everyday licensed 1958 Lincoln Cent grades MS66RD.

PCGS information 11 grading occasions for 1958 Lincoln Cents in MS67+RD. NGC stories a single grading occasion for a 1958 Lincoln Cent in MS68; 253 grading occasions are recorded for cash in NGC MS67. These grades had been assigned during the last 20 years, as Lange’s e-book information no graded items in MS67, with the top-pop coin then identified licensed as MS66RD.

Like most different U.S. coin collection, registry set competitors drives costs for top-pop cash.

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Market Information and Noteworthy Specimens

High Inhabitants: PCGS MS67+RD (11, 10/2024), NGC MS68RD (1, 10/2024), and CAC MS67RD (26:0 stickered:graded, 10/2024).

• PCGS MS67+RD #24396053: GreatCollections, December 24, 2023, Lot 1491902 – View. Safe Protect holder.
• PCGS MS67+RD CAC #37722325: GreatCollections, Might 5, 2019, Lot 671482 – View. Jerald L. Martin Assortment on insert. Safe Protect holder; Heritage, November 6, 2023, Lot 92220 – $9,000. Jerald L. Martin Assortment on insert. Safe Protect holder.
• PCGS MS67+RD CAC #47456289: GreatCollections, August 13, 2023, Lot 1316116 – View. Safe Protect holder.
• PCGS MS67+RD #47804774: GreatCollections, August 6, 2023, Lot 1207921 – View. Safe Protect holder.
• NGC MS67+RD #6073355-002: DLRC (David Lawrence Uncommon Cash), November 13, 2022, Lot 4040 – $2,000; DLRC (David Lawrence Uncommon Cash), April 2, 2023, Lot 4077 – $1,050.
• PCGS MS67+RD #43779521: GreatCollections, February 13, 2022, Lot 946196 – View. Safe Protect holder.
• PCGS MS67+RD #37592442: Heritage, October 18, 2019, Lot 3449 – $9,000. Safe Protect holder.; “The GL and SL Stonebarger Assortment,” Heritage, June 18, 2021, Lot 3366 – $6,300. Safe Protect holder.
• PCGS MS67+RD CAC #25048572: Heritage, April 23, 2020, Lot 3154 – $3,360.00. Safe Protect holder.
• PCGS MS67+RD #38689421: GreatCollections, March 1, 2020, Lot 731641 – View. Safe Protect holder.
• PCGS MS67+RD #37645028: Legend Uncommon Coin Auctions, June 27, 2019, Lot 74 – $6,756.25.

1958 Lincoln Cent Doubled Die Obverse, FS-101

Solely three examples identified. GreatCollections bought the finest-known 1958 Lincoln Cent DDO (PCGS MS65RD) as a part of the Stewart Blay Assortment in January 2023. It hammered for over $1 million. The MS64RD instance Stack’s Bowers bought in March 2018 is pedigreed to the ESM Assortment.

High Inhabitants: PCGS MS65RD (1, 10/2024), NGC N/A (0, 10/2024), and CAC MS65RD (1:0 stickered:graded, 10/2024).

• PCGS MS65RD CAC #44549597: “The Stewart Blay Assortment,” GreatCollections, January 22, 2023, Lot 1272983 – $1,136,250. Safe Protect holder.
• PCGS MS64RD #4997055: “The ESM Assortment,” Stack’s Bowers, March 22, 2018, Lot 2146 – $336,000.

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Coin Specs

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