1958 Lincoln Cent : A Collector’s Guide

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

1958 marked the end of an era for the Lincoln Cent. What started as a public tribute to the Great Emancipator on the centennial of his birth had largely gone unchanged since its 1909 debut. For the 150th anniversary, the Eisenhower Administration retired the Wheat Ears reverse created by Victor David Brenner in favor of a new reverse honoring the Lincoln Memorial. The Memorial, which sits prominently at the end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was designed by noted artist Daniel Chester French and was built from 1914 through ’22, starting five years after the launch of the Lincoln Cent.

The new reverse design was the work of United States Mint Assistant Engraver Frank Gasparro. Before taking his turn as Chief Engraver, Gasparro was tasked with designing the reverse of the cent and Kennedy Half Dollar. Gasparro was a passable artist who was friendly with the numismatic community. Best remembered for his Eisenhower Dollar and Susan B. Anthony Dollar designs, his Lincoln Memorial Cent reverse is probably his most artistically successful contribution to United States coinage.

As for the final Wheat Cents struck at Philadelphia, the P-Mint produced only 252,525,000 coins, giving the 1958 Lincoln Cent one of the lower postwar cent mintages. By comparison, the Denver Mint in 1958 far surpassed its eastern counterpart, producing more than 800 million.

In his insightful 2005 reference book The Complete Guide to Lincoln Cents, the late numismatist David Lange attributed the smaller mintage to the Mint’s production of world coins and the 1958 recession. Indeed, the U.S. Mint was still producing large quantities of coins for Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, the Philippines, and Venezuela, per the 1959 Mint Directors’ Report describing the Mint’s world coin production in calendar year 1958. The U.S. and world economies entered a fairly serious recession in 1957 that lasted into 1958. Many economists attribute the recession to policy measures adopted by the Federal Reserve to combat postwar inflation and downturns in the automobile and housing sectors.

Even with its lower-than-typical mintage, the coin roll craze of the 1950s and ’60s, along with the coin’s “last of its type” status, ensured that a large number of Mint State Red examples of the 1958 Lincoln Cent would survive.

Like other 1950s Lincoln Cents, the date is still incredibly common and abundant in all grades below the uppermost extremity of its population. Lange writes that “1958-P cents are readily available in any and all grades through fully Red Gem. Most uncirculated coins, however, are of simply average quality.”

The Famous Million Dollar 1958 Lincoln Cent Doubled Die

Among Lincoln Cents produced at the Philadelphia Mint in 1958 is one of the series’ most notable doubled die obverse varieties. Its doubling is obvious on all of the obverse text, though weakest on the date. Expert consensus holds that these pieces were smuggled out of the Philadelphia Mint after staff noticed the doubling, perhaps hoping to capitalize on collector interest. The 2009 Fifth Edition of the Cherrypickers’ Guide to Rare Die Varieties of United States Coins says that “the only known specimens came either directly or indirectly from an employee of the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia.” The Cherrypickers’ Guide continues: “No specimens have been reported being found in circulation, wheat cent bags, BU rolls, or other means that would lead to credibility of a true accidental release from the mint.”

The variety was identified in 1983 or ’84; Lincoln Cent variety expert John Wexler included it in his 1984 book The Lincoln Cent Doubled Die. It is also included in the Red Book and has been for decades.

On January 22, 2023, one of the three known 1958 DDO Lincoln Cents crossed the block in a GreatCollections auction for over $1 million including Buyer’s Premium. Its listing described it as “King of the Doubled Dies”, a difficult sobriquet to contest. Another example sold in a Stack’s Bowers auction for $336,000 in March 2018.

Many non-collectors mistake ordinary 1958 Lincoln Cents, especially those with minor machine doubling or other minor production irregularities, as DDOs. Less-than-scrupulous sellers on eBay and sites like it will pass non-DDO coins off as genuine. Avoid such listings and buy notable errors and varieties only from established dealers.

What Is the 1958 Lincoln Cent Worth?

The 1958 Lincoln Cent is common in circulated condition, and has a value of about five cents. In Mint State, this value ranges from about $1 for an uncertified coin in typical condition to an astonishing $10,000 if its among the finest known.

Uncirculated 50-coin rolls are frequently sold on eBay for prices ranging from $10 to $20 each.

Thousands of grading events of the date are recorded in both services’ population reports, with varying degrees of original mint red color. While the population reports at the third-party grading services skew in favor of Gem+ Mint State Red coins and do not represent the true number of extant coins, the typical certified 1958 Lincoln Cent grades MS66RD.

PCGS records 11 grading events for 1958 Lincoln Cents in MS67+RD. NGC reports a single grading event for a 1958 Lincoln Cent in MS68; 253 grading events are recorded for coins in NGC MS67. These grades were assigned over the last 20 years, as Lange’s book records no graded pieces in MS67, with the top-pop coin then known certified as MS66RD.

Like most other U.S. coin series, registry set competition drives prices for top-pop coins.

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Market Data and Noteworthy Specimens

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

1958 Lincoln Cent Doubled Die Obverse, FS-101

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

Top Population: 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 Collection,” GreatCollections, January 22, 2023, Lot 1272983 – $1,136,250. Secure Shield holder.
• PCGS MS64RD #4997055: “The ESM Collection,” Stack’s Bowers, March 22, 2018, Lot 2146 – $336,000.

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Coin Specifications

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