By Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker for CoinWeek Notes …..
The 2003 Lincoln Cent was issued in opposition to a backdrop of many individuals calling for the denomination’s elimination. Nonetheless, these murmurs didn’t affect the standard of the coin, because the 2002 cent is likely one of the best-struck points bearing the Lincoln Memorial reverse.
Lincoln Cents had been struck on copper-plated zinc planchets since 1982, incomes the cash the “Zincoln” moniker from coin collectors. The coin’s composition, adopted to chop manufacturing prices, supplied solely a short-term profit and finally proved to be a legal responsibility as zinc costs rose resulting from worldwide demand. CNN Cash reported that by the early 2000s, China shifted from a internet exporter to a internet importer of zinc and that round 2003, Chinese language demand for zinc skyrocketed, driving the steel’s costs up.
Efforts to Remove the Cent Throughout the Early 2000s
In 2006, Arizona congressman Jim Kolbe (R-AZ5) launched laws to get rid of the denomination, as he had in every session of Congress for the reason that Nineties (in 2001, he even launched laws to require money transactions to be rounded to the closest 5 cents). Nationwide Public Radio’s (NPR) Planet Cash reported in 2020 that Kolbe’s preliminary curiosity in eliminating the cent was born of a want to introduce a copper greenback coin, offering an outlet for copper mined in his state. Regularly, he got here to see the elimination of the cent as a cost-saving measure.
Why Sure Lincoln Cents Are Price Extra Cash
Regardless of the requires its elimination and the growing value of manufacture, 2003 noticed Lincoln Cent manufacturing proceed unabated, with a mintage of three.3 billion cash struck on the Philadelphia Mint and a further 3.548 billion struck on the Denver Mint. From that huge amount of more and more costly-to-produce cents, quite a lot of cash caught the eyes of collectors and had been elevated far past their nominal one-cent face worth.
Coin collectors have all the time most well-liked cash of top quality or “eye-appeal”, however with the ascendence of third-party grading companies, collectors and sellers acknowledged that incremental variations in grade for Mint State fashionable cash might type the idea of a brand new sort of numismatic market. In extraordinarily excessive grades, cash that flow into generally at face worth might all of a sudden commerce at tons of or 1000’s of instances face worth.
The distinction between a 2003 Lincoln Cent value one cent and a 2003 penny value extra is the coin’s situation. A run-of-the-mill coin that one is prone to encounter in commerce will vary from Further High-quality to the decrease tiers of Mint State. Publicity to the weather, oils from human pores and skin, and the trials of each day use will mar and impair all one-cent cash, rendering them completely ineffective to collectors.
Even cash freshly pulled from financial institution rolls will seemingly exhibit marks or scratches from different cash or counting machines. This may restrict the numismatic premium of those items to a small quantity over the coin’s face worth.
Due to this, collectors and sellers look to Mint Units, which often embody cash struck and dealt with with a larger diploma of care than atypical circulation strikes. The United States Mint specifically packages Mint Units and sells them at a premium to collectors. They embody one instance of every denomination struck for circulation at every mint. In 2003, collectors had been handled to cash of the best high quality ever produced in Mint Units.
The Story of the Good Cent?
On August 29, 2006, PCGS printed a press launch asserting that, for the primary time after 160,000 submissions, it had assigned its MS70 grade to a circulation strike Lincoln Cent. The historic coin was an ideal 2003 cent in full MS70RD.
Given the standard of the problem, the truth that an ideal Lincoln Cent got here from Philadelphia’s 2003 emission isn’t a surprise. PCGS Value Information Editor Jaime Hernandez referred to as the PCGS MS70RD 2003 Lincoln Cent the “Holy Grail of Lincoln [C]ents”. Ron Guth referred to as the piece “a outstanding coin” and stated it was unlikely that PCGS would ever see one other of its caliber.
In October of that yr, the coin appeared in an internet public sale at Teletrade, promoting for a report value of $15,120.
Nonetheless, the euphoria didn’t final lengthy because the coin developed a naked-eye seen copper spot shortly after the sale and was despatched again to PCGS. Underneath the phrases of their grade assure, PCGS purchased the coin again and downgraded it to MS69RD. At MS69RD, the once-perfect 2003 Lincoln Cent is now certainly one of 379 examples in PCGS holders at that grade.
Whereas the story of this specific coin is notable and would have been destined for the reminiscence gap had been it not for essays like this, the tons of of cash graded MS69RD seem on eBay incessantly sufficient that any collector so can get hold of one for about $60.
By way of ultra-high-quality cents, the 2003 Lincoln Cent has firm. Previous to 1999, the grade MS69RD was practically exceptional for circulation strikes, however the high quality of cash produced from 2000 to 2004 was enough for a number of examples to earn that grade. Keep in mind that the obtainable provide of Mint State cash for these dates is nowhere close to exhausted.
For Satin End Mint Set cash (which had been produced to a special commonplace than circulation strike cash), a small variety of cash had been graded SP70RD in 2005 and 2006, however none had been reported at this grade after that. Given what occurred to the 2003 cent, this may increasingly have signaled a coverage revision on the a part of the service.
That modified in 2019 when the Mint launched “freemium” 2019-W Lincoln Cents in Mint Units. Whereas seldom encountered in an ideal “70” grade, PCGS did discover that 11 of the 6,040 cash submitted met their standards for its highest attainable grade.
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Market Information and Noteworthy Specimens
High Inhabitants: PCGS MS69RD (381, 1/2025), NGC MS69RD (78, 1/2025), and CAC N/A (0, 1/2025).
- PCGS MS69RD #6012XXXX: eBay, Might 14, 2024 – $56. Final 4 digits of certification quantity obscured.
- PCGS MS69RD #08830773: eBay, April 16, 2024 – $50.
- PCGS MS69RD #43980236: eBay, March 10, 2024 – $129.95.
- PCGS MS69RD #48528750: eBay, March 2, 2024 – $119.95.
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Design
Obverse:
The obverse of the 2003 Lincoln Cent was designed by Victor David Brenner and seems largely because it did when the kind was first minted in 1909. The principle distinction between the 2003 obverse versus the 1909 model is the situation of Brenners’ initials, V.D.B., which had been added below Lincoln’s bust in 1918 after their removing from the reverse in late 1909. The yr 2003 seems to the correct of Lincoln, and the motto IN GOD WE TRUST seems above the president. To the left of the sixteenth president is the phrase LIBERTY.
Reverse:
Frank Gasparro designed the 1959 Lincoln Memorial reverse, changing the unique 1909 Brenner wheat stalk design. Gasparro’s initials FG seem on the lower-right aspect of the Lincoln Memorial. The denomination written out as ONE CENT is beneath the edifice and alongside the rim, whereas the legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA runs alongside the highest half of the reverse alongside the rim. Between the highest of the Lincoln Memorial and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM.
Edge:
The sting of the 2003 Lincoln cent is obvious or easy, with out reeding or lettering.
2003 Lincoln Cent Designers
Lithuanian-born coin designer Victor David Brenner is finest recognized for his iconic design for the Lincoln Cent (1909-Current) (View Designer’s Profile).
Frank Gasparro was an American medalist and coin designer. He joined the Mint’s Engraving Division in 1942 below John R. Sinnock and labored below Gilroy Roberts as Assistant Engraver. Gasparro succeeded Roberts as Chief Engraver of the U.S. Mint on February 23, 1965 and served in that function till January 16, 1981. He died on September 29, 2001 (View Designer’s Profile).
Coin Specs
| Nation: | United States of America |
| 12 months of Difficulty: | 2003 |
| Denomination: | One Cent (USD) |
| Mintmark: | None (Philadelphia) |
| Mintage: | 3,330,000,000 |
| Alloy: | .992 zinc, .008 copper with plating of pure copper |
| Weight: | 2.50 g |
| Diameter: | 19.05 mm |
| Edge: | Plain |
| OBV Designer: | Victor David Brenner |
| REV Designer: | Frank Gasparro |
| High quality: | Enterprise Strike |
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