The 10 Most Valuable Wheat Pennies That Could Bring in a Small Fortune

It's official, the penny has been canceled. The last U.S. penny was minted on November 12, 2025, in Philadelphia. No more pennies will be made. However, there are still approximately 250 billion one-cent coins in circulation, so you can still use them.

There are a few pennies that are considered valuable by collectors, so before hauling your jug of pennies to the bank, you might want to check if you've been secretly sitting on big bucks. Learn which pennies could help you get ahead financially or even be worth life-changing amounts of money.

1931-S Lincoln Cent

Estimated worth: $18,600

The "S" indicates these wheat pennies were made in the San Francisco mint, and it's valuable because of the Great Depression. A speculative market burst wiped billions of dollars from the stock market, leaving tens of millions of workers unemployed.

The nearly immediate halt on consumer spending meant a sharp reduction in new currency being made, and only 866,000 Lincoln wheat pennies were minted. This is the second-lowest mintage run in the history of wheat pennies, and nearly a century later, they are rare to find.

1909-S Over Horizontal S

Estimated worth: $32,900

Collectors love mistakes, and in 1909, a pretty big blunder occurred in the San Francisco mint. An employee accidentally oriented the "S" punch sideways while creating the die used to cast pennies.

Instead of starting over, the punch was repositioned correctly, but the damage was already done. Collectors refer to these double marks as a re-punched mintmark (RPM).

1909-S Lincoln Cent

Estimated worth: $69,000

The value of this penny is entirely the fault of a guy named Victor David Brenner, who created the design to commemorate Lincoln's 100th birthday. He went ahead and popped his initials (V.D.B.) on the reverse side, and pretty much everybody got mad about it.

The coin was halted and removed from circulation after just three days. The San Francisco mint struck an additional 1,825,000 pennies without the initials, but that was quite small compared to the output of other mints.

1922 Wheat Penny

Estimated worth: $6,000 - $92,000

The post-war recession meant that the U.S. only produced pennies in 1922 at the Denver mint, so nearly every penny from that year is worth more than one cent, but some coins have no mint mark at all because of an error.

A pair of casting dies was accidentally used without a coin blank, resulting in damage. The marks were removed with heavy polishing, but the little "D" mint mark went with them. Those D-less wheat pennies are what can get you the big bucks.

1917 Doubled Die Obverse

Estimated worth: $120,000

A "double die" error occurs when the master punch strikes a die multiple times, resulting in a slight double image. In 1917, there was a slip resulting in a very strong doubling, especially over the text and date.

There is no mint mark because it occurred in Philadelphia, which didn't use one. The mistake went unnoticed for many years, so the coins were heavily circulated, which means very few are in top condition by collectible standards.

1914-D Lincoln Cent

Estimated worth: $300 - $158,625

There were millions of pennies minted in 1914, but relatively few from the Denver mint. There are no mistakes or errors on these coins; they're just rare and were heavily circulated for use, which means top-grade condition coins are worth a lot. Even the worn coins are worth more than the face value, though, so finding one would be a truly lucky penny for you.

1955 Doubled Die Obverse

Estimated worth: $287,156

Roughly 40,000 pennies in Philadelphia were printed with a doubled image before the error was caught, and the doubling is very obvious on the lettering and year. Tracking down all the misprints would be time-consuming with basically no payoff, so the coins were allowed into circulation, and collectors went wild.

1944 Steel Cent

Estimated worth: $408,000

When the Allies turned the tide of WWII, American mints switched back to a copper-based alloy, since copper was used for the war effort, but in the chaos of the switch, a few leftover steel planchets remained in the coin presses. Thus, the 1944 "steelies" were born.

This happened in mints in San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Denver, but some are rarer than others. "S" mint marks are the rarest, with only two in known existence. A Philadelphia mint-marked steel penny still brought in $180,000 at auction, though, so they're all good.

1943 Bronze/Copper Cent

Estimated worth: $408,000

These pennies are basically the reverse of what happened to the 1944 "steelies", in that when the WWII war effort switched pennies from copper to zinc-coated steel planchets, there were some left in the coin presses.

There are estimated to be less than 20 of these pennies in existence, so they've become the treasure of legends. There is thought to only be one from the Denver mint, making it the most rare. San Francisco is estimated to have produced five, and Philadelphia made the most with between 10 and 15 being made.

1982-D Small Date Copper Cent

Estimated worth: $15,000

There was a rare transitional error that occurred when copper was switched to a zinc-alloy for minting pennies, and in Denver, there was a small date error while modifications were being made to allow faster pressing of the coins. If you think you may have one of these, you can test it by weight. The copper-alloy pennies weigh 3.1 grams.

Bottom line

The very last pennies made might be worth up to $5 million each, and they've been marked with a little omega symbol to distinguish them from the rest of the last batch. These last five pennies won't enter circulation. Instead, they will be auctioned off by the Treasury Department at a future date.

In the meantime, if you're looking for a magical solution to lower your financial stress, then it might be worth sorting through your penny jar to see if you've got a rare wheat version worth a pile of cash.

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