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How to Collect Lincoln Cents

The United States Mint first began striking the penny featuring 16th American president Abraham Lincoln on the obverse in 1909. The original design featured the words "ONE CENT" surrounded by wheat stalks on the reverse. This was changed to a rendering of the Lincoln Memorial in 1959. Many numismatists try to collect all of the Lincoln cents minted by year and location, although some key dates can be hard to find.

Things You'll Need

Coin book
Magnifying glass

Instructions

- 1
  Buy a book designed for penny collection. Several companies make these books that contain cutouts where you can store your Lincoln cents. Search bookstores or coin supply shops to find them.
- 2
  Decide how early you want your collection to start. You will quickly discover it's pretty easy to assemble most pennies struck by the U.S. Mint since 1959 as most are still in general circulation. Obtaining all of the "wheat pennies" struck between 1909 and 1958 is much tougher, as collectors have saved most of this earlier variety of Lincoln cent.
- 3
  Buy a coin price guide such as "Whitman's Red Book." This will help you determine which pennies are rarer, as well as provide a guide on how to grade your pennies if you want to keep them for collector value.
- 4
  Check the mint mark of each penny if you plan to collect cents struck at each U.S. Mint location for each year of circulation. Since 1909, pennies have been produced in Denver, Philadelphia and San Francisco. The mint mark is located below the date on the obverse of the coin. "D" stands for Denver while "S" stands for San Francisco. Pennies made in Philadelphia contain no mint mark.
- 5
  Fill in your book with the pennies you find. You may have to buy some of the rare coins from coin shops or online auctions such as eBay. Most modern cents are relatively common so this should be not be cost prohibitive.

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