1960 Lincoln Cents 1959 to Date MS62RB

History

The Mint used two different date punches on the Lincoln cent in 1960, beginning the year with working dies carrying a Small Date. Those dies gave persistent die chipping trouble, and the date was subsequently enlarged, leaving collectors with two date sizes for the year in both business strikes and proofs. The pairing set off one of the better-known collecting crazes of the period, with even non-collectors hunting the scarcer Small Date and newspapers reporting $50 bags changing hands for large premiums, in some cases just over $10,000 for a bag of 5,000 cents, about 200 times face value. That excitement centered on the Philadelphia Small Date, which is the scarce half of the pairing; the Denver coins were struck in far greater numbers.

Details

The obverse portrait is Victor David Brenner's, and the Memorial reverse is the work of Frank Gasparro. The coin was struck in Denver on a planchet of 95% copper with 5% tin and zinc, weighing 3.11 grams, measuring 19.00 mm in diameter, with a plain edge. Denver cent production for 1960 totaled 1,580,884,000 pieces, a figure covering both date sizes, since the Mint did not report output by date punch. The RB designation is a copper color grade rather than a variety, sitting between Brown and Red.

Features

The attribution point is the zero in the date: on the Small Date the 0 is smaller and oval on the inside, a call most collectors can make by eye without magnification. The obverse carries LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST, the date and the D mintmark below the date, while the reverse shows the Lincoln Memorial with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, E PLURIBUS UNUM and ONE CENT. One recognized variety exists for this mint, the 1960-D/D Small Date over Large Date, catalogued by PCGS as #82869. On that variety the mintmark is recut, with a second faint but nearly complete D north of the prominent one, and the doubled date results from hub doubling rather than machine doubling.

Notable facts

• The Denver Small Date is readily available in MS65 and below, with MS66 examples carrying only a small premium.
• A PCGS MS66 example of the 1960-D/D Small over Large Date variety brought $4,025 at auction on July 30, 2008.
• At the time of that 2008 sale, neither major grading service had certified a finer example of the overdate variety.
• Both date sizes were also used on 1960 proof cents.
• Certified Small Date business strikes from Denver are known as high as MS68 in full Red.