Lowest Wheat Penny Mintages

Mintage, as it relates to wheat pennies, refers to the number of any particular wheat penny that was produced in any given year. All wheat pennies (and all coins in general) have a mintage number for each year that particular wheat penny was produced.

Because the mintage of a coin relates directly to supply and demand, generally, the lower the mintage of a coin is, the greater the scarcity and collectibility, and the greater the value. While this is usually true, it doesn't always work this way, I'm afraid. There is another factor that we must consider when we are talking about wheat penny mintages.

We must remember that mintage numbers do not reflect the number of a particular wheat penny that are actively available. They just reflect how many of that particular wheat penny were made. See the difference?

Just because a large number of wheat pennies were minted in a given year doesn't mean they are all still available. And it really is availability, rather than the mintage number that has a greater influence on value. You see, some coins that were minted may no longer be available. They may have been lost, hidden, stolen, damaged, destroyed, melted down, hoarded, or even so widely collected that there aren't very many of them left for others to collect.

We have several great examples of this with wheat pennies.

The 1909-S VDB wheat penny has a relatively low mintage, but it's certainly not a rare coin, in an absolute sense. However, because pennies are one of the most collected coins in the world and because wheat pennies are a very popular series of pennies to collect, the 1909-S VDB wheat penny is highly desirable and highly collectible. With only 484,000 of them minted, and this being one of the most collected coins in the world, you can see why it's not only the low mintage, but even moreso the supply and demand factor that puts a premium on this special key date wheat penny.

Another great example of this supply and demand principle in wheat pennies is the 1931-S wheat penny. This was already a low mintage wheat penny, with only 866,000 of them made. But in addition to this, a man named Maurice Scharlack hoarded 200,000 of them for his own personal collection at the time. This was nearly 1/4 of the entire mintage.

So, while low mintage likely means greater value, we must also consider the supply and demand factors that apply to these wheat pennies, as well. This helps to explain that while these are the 10 lowest mintage wheat pennies, they are not the 10 most valuable wheat pennies (though some of these wheat pennies make that list, as well).

Here is a list of the top ten lowest wheat penny mintages:

1) 1909-S VDB Wheat Penny Mintage: 484,000
2) 1931-S Wheat Penny Mintage: 866,000
3) 1914-D Wheat Penny Mintage: 1,193,000
4) 1909-S Wheat Penny Mintage: 1,825,000
5) 1924-D Wheat Penny Mintage: 2,520,000
6) 1911-S Wheat Penny Mintage: 4,026,000
7) 1914-S Wheat Penny Mintage: 4,137,000
8) 1912-S Wheat Penny Mintage: 4,431,000
9) 1931-D Wheat Penny Mintage: 4,480,000
10) 1926-S Wheat Penny Mintage: 4,550,000

For a list of all wheat penny mintages, click:
Wheat Penny Mintages