Antique Coin Identification: Date, Mint Mark and Grade

To identify an antique coin, read four things in order: the country and denomination, the date, the mint mark and the condition grade. Those four facts name the exact coin, and only then does a price guide give a meaningful value. A 1909 Lincoln cent without a mint mark lists at $4 in Good-4, while a 1909-S VDB cent in the same grade lists at $875 (PCGS Price Guide, updated 24 September 2026); the only visible difference is a small S under the date.

• Country and denomination. Read the legend and the value. Many older coins state the value in words rather than numbers.
• Date. On worn coins, tilt the coin under a single light to raise the numbers.
• Mint mark. A small letter showing where the coin was struck; see the list below.
• Grade. How worn the coin is, on the 1 to 70 scale.

Mint marks and the years each mint opened, from Wikipedia's mint mark article:

• P: Philadelphia. Before 1980 Philadelphia coins were mostly unmarked, so no letter usually means Philadelphia; P was added to Lincoln cents only in 2017.
• D: Dahlonega, Georgia (1838 to 1861) or Denver (from 1906). A D on a coin dated 1861 or earlier is Dahlonega.
• C: Charlotte, North Carolina (opened 1838).
• O: New Orleans (opened 1838).
• S: San Francisco (from 1854).
• CC: Carson City (opened 1870).
• W: West Point (from 1974).

From 1965 US coins carried no mint marks, and they returned in 1968 (Wikipedia, Coinage Act of 1965). Positions differ by series: on a Lincoln cent the mark is under the date on the front (Wikipedia), and on a Morgan dollar it is on the back, just below the wreath around the eagle's tail feathers (Bullion Shark). Morgan dollars were struck at Philadelphia without a mark, at San Francisco, New Orleans from 1879 to 1909, Carson City from 1878 to 1885, and at Denver only in 1921 (Bullion Shark).

Coin grades use the Sheldon scale from 1 to 70, which William Sheldon devised in 1949 for early large cents and the American Numismatic Association adapted for all US coins in the 1970s (Wikipedia). The main steps are:

• Poor-1 and Good-4: heavily worn; outlines and date readable.
• Very Good-8 and Fine-12: major details visible but worn flat in places.
• Very Fine-20 to Extremely Fine-45: light to moderate wear on the high points.
• About Uncirculated-50 to 58: traces of wear only.
• Mint State-60 to 70: no wear from circulation.

Copper coins also get a colour: RD for full mint red, RB for red and brown, BN for brown (NGC). Colour moves price a great deal; a 1909-S VDB cent in MS-65 lists at $4,750 in brown and $8,500 in red (PCGS Price Guide, 24 September 2026).

Do not clean a coin before it is identified. NGC says harsh cleaning means a coin cannot receive a numeric grade and gets a Details grade instead, which collectors pay less for.

These PCGS Price Guide values (updated 24 September 2026) show how the date, mint mark and grade together set the price. G-4 is Good, EF-40 Extremely Fine, MS-65 Mint State; BN is brown and RD red.

• 1909, no mint mark: $4 in G-4 BN, $125 in MS-65 BN.
• 1909-S VDB: $875 in G-4 BN, $1,500 in EF-40 BN, $8,500 in MS-65 RD. Only 484,000 were released (Wikipedia).
• 1914-D: $185 in G-4 BN, $850 in EF-40 BN.
• 1922 No D, strong reverse: $550 in G-4 BN, $2,250 in EF-40 BN.
• 1931-S: $70 in G-4 BN.
• 1943 steel cent: $1 in EF-40, $30 in MS-65. Over a billion were made (Wikipedia), so a worn one is worth little.
• 1943 bronze cent (error, 10 to 15 known): $235,000 in EF-40 BN.
• 1955 doubled die obverse: $875 in G-4 BN, $65,000 in MS-65 RD.

These are guide values for coins graded by PCGS; a raw, ungraded coin usually sells for less.

A handful of coins have sold for over a million dollars, and each is a known rarity with a documented history:

• 1933 double eagle: $18,872,250 at Sotheby's on 8 June 2021. Wikipedia notes that it is illegal to own privately any 1933 double eagle except this one specimen.
• 1794 Flowing Hair dollar: $10,016,875 at Stack's Bowers in January 2013, graded Specimen-66 by PCGS (Wikipedia).
• 1943-D bronze Lincoln cent: the unique example sold for $1.7 million (Wikipedia); PCGS lists it at $1,700,000 in MS-64 BN (24 September 2026).
• 1943-S bronze cent: one sold for $1 million (Wikipedia); PCGS lists the 1943-S bronze at $1,000,000 in MS-63 BN.

A coin in a family jar is very unlikely to be one of these. Any coin that looks like a 1943 bronze cent should go to PCGS or NGC for authentication rather than being judged at home.

Yes, a photo is enough to identify the type of most coins. Photo apps compare your picture with images of known coins: Coinoscope, for example, shows a list of similar coins from a phone picture, is free with a paid version that removes ads, and reports 2.6 million downloads (Coinoscope). AntiqLens does the same for coins and other antiques.

A photo cannot settle three things: the exact grade, whether surfaces were cleaned, and whether a rare coin is genuine. Use the photo result to name the coin, then check the grade and value yourself or send valuable coins to a grading service.

For a clear result, photograph each side flat on a dark cloth in even daylight, fill the frame, and add a close-up of the date and mint mark.

Once you know the coin, look up its date, mint mark and grade in a price guide from a grading service such as PCGS or NGC, then compare with recent auction results for coins in the same grade. For common silver coins, the metal may be the whole value; our value of old silver coins page lists melt values by coin type. For old paper money, see antique dollar bill value, and for a formal valuation, vintage appraisers near me.

Research and drafting for this page were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed below. Prices are copied from the named auction house, dealer or guide with the sale date where the source gives one and the date we checked it; asking prices and estimates are labelled as such, and where a figure could not be confirmed we say so rather than estimate. If you find an error, tell us and we will correct it.