Rare Excellent Condition 1969-S Penny Sells at Auction

Collecting coins is a hobby that has a long and storied tradition. There are many reasons people collect coins. First, it is easy to do. If you want to start collecting coins to get different coins from different years and with different mint marks, you can start right away with the coins you have in your pocket. Second, it is a fun hobby to start with kids, as they are not looking for the value of the coins but instead the excitement of finding a coin they need to add to their collection.

Coin collecting is also tied to history. There were different types of coins with different artwork on the obverse and reverse sides. Collectors who know what they are looking for also check for the mint marks. These are letters printed by the year on the coin that shows at which mint the coin was struck. Over the course of U.S. history, there have been nine United States Mints, but there are only four operating today. These mints are in Philadelphia, which uses the mint mark, “P,” San Francisco, which uses an “S,” Denver, whose mint mark is “D,” and West Point, which uses a “W.”

Not every mint strikes every type of coin. Coins from a mint that had a low run, making the coin rare, means collectors will seek out those coins making them far more valuable than their face value.

Mint marks were originally used to distinguish coins struck at “branch mints” from the coins from the first U.S. Mint at Philadelphia, which didn’t use a mintmark. The “P” for Philadelphia did not appear until Susan B. Anthony dollar was struck in 1979.

After that, from 1980 through 2017, the only coin not to be stamped with a mint mark were Lincoln head pennies. The image above shows 2019 pennies from each of the four mints with the "P" missing from the Philadelphia penny, but the "S" and "W" used by San Francisco and West Point. Denver used its mintmark consistently throughout the years.

By this point, the only mints producing most of the coins for circulation were Philadelphia and Denver. San Francisco and West Point, the latter of which opened in 1974 to address a shortage of circulating coins, only struck coins when there was a concern about the lack of coinage in circulation.

Denver used its “D,” but Philadelphia kept the “P” off the pennies. This was done so San Francisco and West Point could produce additional pennies, also without a mint mark, so no one would be able to differentiate between a very common Philadelphia penny and an extremely rare San Francisco or West Point penny to avoid the issue of collectors removing these pennies from circulation, which is the very issue the West Point mint was meant to resolve.

West Point is often used to strike special coins, such as the Roosevelt dime produced for the 50th anniversary of its design. West Point also makes coins specifically used for commemorative sets, like the 2015 “W” marked dime used as a part of a three-coin set to commemorate the March of Dimes. Only 75,000 of these coins were ever produced. West Point does produce a limited number of “W” marked quarters every year. These rare coins lead to what has been called “the Great American Coin Hunt.”

Over the years, some coins have become very popular for collectors. One such coin is the 1969-S Lincoln Penny. The 1969-S penny wasn’t particularly rare. There were more than a half-billion of them released into circulation. Besides being coveted to fill in a date and mintmark series collection, the perceived rarity of the coin is due to the fact that San Francisco, like West Point, does not currently print many coins for circulation today. 1969 pennies are also worth more than their face value due to their copper content.

Another reason for the popularity of the 1969-S coins is that there was a mistake while creating a small number of these coins. A “double-die” is when an error leads to a misalignment of some sort leading to a duplication of an image on a coin. The rarest double-die coins put into circulation was the 1969-S double-die penny. There were believed only to be about 100 of these coins produced and circulated.

One of these coins recently surfaced after being found in a collection of 1969-S pennies in an old family collection in Texas. After being authenticated, the coin was to be put up for auction by Heritage Auctions in June 2021.

A similar 1969-S double-die penny was one of the most expensive coins ever to be auctioned, selling in 2018 for $126,500. In June, the Heritage Auction saw this coin sell for $58,800, which is the highest amount received for this rare coin since the 2018 auction. The higher amounts for these coins were due to the color of the coin, both closer to the original red as opposed to many of the coins which have become badly tarnished.

Auctions have become more and more popular over the years due to online auction houses, which expands the reach to people who would otherwise not attend an auction in person. Auctions have also become far more common with sites like eBay, where people put whatever they have up for sale from common home goods to rare collectibles.

Regardless of whether you are a large auction house or a person trying to clear out your basement, you need to ship your goods with a company that has been in the shipping business for over 15 years with experience shipping domestically and internationally. Visit our home page to learn more about Auction Shipping and how we can make sure the items you sell are delivered safely and professionally.