1914-D Lincoln Cent

A new cent for Lincoln

The Lincoln cent was Theodore Roosevelt's idea as much as anyone's. Having finished redesigning the four gold coins by 1908, Roosevelt turned to the cent. He had admired a 1907 plaque of Abraham Lincoln by the sculptor Victor David Brenner, who had sat with the president in late 1908, and in January 1909 the Mint engaged Brenner to design a cent depicting Lincoln. Many citizens had written to the Treasury asking for a Lincoln coin, and the centennial of his birth fell that year.

Brenner submitted models on January 18, 1909. His obverse followed a Lincoln profile he had used before, including on a desk plaque; the reverse he first proposed resembled current French silver coins, and the final version carried two wheat ears. Lincoln became the first U.S. president on a regular circulating American coin. The cents were issued to great public interest on August 2, 1909, with long lines forming outside Treasury offices across the country.

The coins also launched a controversy. Brenner's initials, V.D.B., sat prominently at the base of the reverse and drew complaints the very afternoon of release. They were removed within days; cents without them were in production by August 12, 1909. The initials came back, much smaller, on Lincoln's shoulder in 1918, which is why a genuine 1914-D has none.

The cent nobody saved

In 1914 Philadelphia struck 75,238,432 cents and San Francisco 4,137,000. Denver struck 1,193,000. That is more than twice the 484,000 of the 1909-S VDB, the coin that had been famous since the week it appeared. Collectors, souvenir hunters and speculators put the 1909-S VDB away at once. No one put the 1914-D away. It went out as money and passed through tills, pockets and purses like any other cent.

The inexpensive coin boards that turned Lincoln cents into a national hobby did not arrive until the 1930s. When millions of Americans finally went looking for a 1914-D to fill the hole in their board, the coins had been circulating for about two decades. Worn pieces could still be found. Fresh ones were gone.

A few groups of unworn coins did survive. The numismatist Walter Breen wrote that a New England dealer held 10 rolls of Mint State 1914-D cents as late as 1943, about 500 coins; a separate account credited to Breen describes a group of roughly 700 that stayed together into the early 1950s. Neither number is confirmed, and Breen's recollections are not always reliable. Q. David Bowers later reported two original rolls, about 100 coins, found in the 1970s with a likely origin in Hawaii or the Philippines; the tropical climate left many of them spotted and brown.

Why full red is so hard

Copper keeps reacting with the air, so a cent can escape wear and still lose the orange-red color it had when struck. Grading services label copper coins Red, Red-Brown or Brown; a Red coin keeps at least 85 percent of its original color. Carbon spotting is endemic to high-grade 1914-D cents, and many show die erosion and heavy die polishing that weakens Lincoln's coat.

That is why the 1914-D, not the lower-mintage 1909-S VDB, is the true key in Mint State. A September 9, 2026 population report counted 2,573 1909-S VDB cents graded Red against 279 for the 1914-D, more than nine to one. PCGS counted eight 1914-D cents in MS66 Red and two in MS66+ Red, with none finer, while 1909-S VDB cents number in the hundreds at the same grades. Across all colors, Mint State 1914-D cents certified by PCGS total only slightly more than 1,100.

PCGS estimates that about 230 Red examples survive in grade 65 or better. Older references describe a single PCGS MS66+ Red as the finest known; a second coin joined it when it sold in January 2026 for $128,100.

The Whispering Pines coin

This entry is a single coin: a PCGS MS66 Red bearing certification number 48300148, one of about ten 1914-D cents PCGS has graded MS66 Red or finer. Its label notes that it came from the Bender collection. A collector's guide describes a carbon spot below OF on the reverse and a small constellation of spots around the T in CENTS, the kind of flecks that PCGS calls a characteristic quirk of the issue rather than a flaw.

The same certification number appears in auction records graded one notch lower, as a PCGS MS65+ Red with a CAC sticker, selling for $28,200 in October 2014. As an MS66 Red it sold in August 2022 from the Bender Family Collection for $72,000, and it is listed again at $52,800 in May 2023. The two published records do not fully agree on its path between those sales. It sold most recently on January 16, 2025, from the Whispering Pines Collection, for $66,000.

Other top coins show how much the color, surfaces and pedigree matter. The finer of the two MS66+ Red coins, once in the Dell Loy Hansen collection, sold for $32,200 in 2005 when it was in an NGC MS66 Red holder; regraded by PCGS, it brought $158,625 in May 2018, still the PCGS auction record for the date. Among PCGS MS66 Red coins, the Stewart Blay example in an old green holder with a CAC sticker brought $109,687.50 in January 2023, while others sold for $40,800 in March 2020 and $62,156.25 in November 2024.

How to know a real one

The 1914-D is one of the most counterfeited U.S. coins of the 20th century, and experts advise against buying one uncertified. Fakers add a D mintmark to a genuine 1914 Philadelphia cent, or reshape the first 4 of a 1944-D into a 1. The 1944-D trick is easy to catch: those cents carry Brenner's V.D.B. initials on Lincoln's shoulder, and a 1914-D does not. Date spacing on an altered coin is also wrong.

Genuine coins show circular hub marks inside the upper loop of the 9 in the date, and four mintmark positions are known. One genuine die has a small crack running from the rim at the right edge of the bust up through the coat; another has a small tool mark curving down from the left serif of the T in LIBERTY. The mintmark is smaller than the style used after 1931.

Specifications are those of every Wheat cent of the period: 95 percent copper with 5 percent tin and zinc, 3.11 grams, 19.00 millimeters, plain edge, D mintmark below the date.

The numbers

Mintage

1,193,000 (Philadelphia 75,238,432; San Francisco 4,137,000 that year)

Survival estimate

About 230 Red examples in 65 or better (PCGS estimate)

PCGS Red population

279, including eight MS66 Red and two MS66+ Red (September 9, 2026)

Weight

3.11 grams

Diameter

19.00 mm

Composition

95% copper, 5% tin and zinc

Edge

Plain

Designer

Victor David Brenner

Timeline

1. 1907

   Victor David Brenner makes a plaque of Abraham Lincoln that Theodore Roosevelt admires.

2. Jan 18, 1909

   Brenner submits models for a Lincoln cent to the Mint.

3. Aug 2, 1909

   The Lincoln cent is released, with Brenner's V.D.B. initials on the reverse.

4. Aug 12, 1909

   Cents without the initials are in production.

5. 1914

   The Denver Mint strikes 1,193,000 cents.

6. 1918

   Brenner's initials return, smaller, on Lincoln's shoulder.

7. 1943

   By Walter Breen's account, a New England dealer still holds 10 rolls of Mint State 1914-D cents.

8. Mar 24, 2005

   The coin later graded PCGS MS66+ Red sells as an NGC MS66 Red for $32,200.

9. Oct 9, 2014

   This coin, then graded PCGS MS65+ Red with a CAC sticker, sells for $28,200.

10. May 2018

    A PCGS MS66+ Red from the Dell Loy Hansen pedigree sets the auction record for the date at $158,625.

11. Aug 24, 2022

    This coin, now PCGS MS66 Red, sells from the Bender Family Collection for $72,000.

12. Jan 15, 2023

    The Stewart Blay PCGS MS66 Red with a CAC sticker sells for $109,687.50.

13. Jan 16, 2025

    This coin sells from the Whispering Pines Collection for $66,000.

14. Jan 14, 2026

    A second PCGS MS66+ Red appears and sells for $128,100.

15. Sep 9, 2026

    PCGS counts 279 1914-D cents graded Red, against 2,573 for the 1909-S VDB.

The world in 1914

• Jan 5, 1914

  Ford announces an eight-hour day and a $5 daily wage.

• Apr 20, 1914

  The Ludlow Massacre: the Colorado National Guard attacks striking coal miners, killing 24 people.

• Apr 21, 1914

  U.S. sailors and Marines land at Veracruz, Mexico, beginning a six-month occupation.

• Jul 11, 1914

  Babe Ruth makes his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox.

• Aug 4, 1914

  As war spreads across Europe, the United States declares neutrality.

• Aug 15, 1914

  The Panama Canal opens.

• Sep 1, 1914

  Martha, the last known passenger pigeon, dies at the Cincinnati Zoo.

• Nov 16, 1914

  The Federal Reserve Banks open for business.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1914-D Lincoln Cent is number 78 of 100 in the coins entries of the FLOAT 100. 96 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (92 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The 1914-D had more than twice the mintage of the 1909-S VDB, yet PCGS has graded more than nine times as many full-red 1909-S VDB cents.
• There are more PCGS MS66 Red 1909-S VDB cents than 1914-D cents in Red in all grades combined.
• A real 1914-D has no V.D.B. on Lincoln's shoulder; the initials did not return until 1918.
• Two original rolls of 1914-D cents surfaced in the 1970s, probably from Hawaii or the Philippines, many spotted by the tropical air.
• The coin that holds the auction record sold for $32,200 in 2005 and for $158,625 thirteen years later after a new grade.
• Carbon spots are so common on top 1914-D cents that experts treat them as a trait of the issue.