COOL COIN SHOWCASE, #6, May 10, 2026

desertmoonnm
May 10
3 min read

Key Date Small Cents

Hi Folks,

I am highlighting some recent small cent pickups and want to focus attention on these because it brings back childhood memories. Many of us started collecting as kids and did a lot of folder filling from change or rolls obtained from the bank. What set me on this path was when my grandparents bought a bag of 100 uncirculated Morgan Silver Dollars. Occasionally they would bring them out for me to look out. Seeing all of those big and shiny silver dollars inspired me to start collecting at age 10. Like most of us at that age, our capital was not like it is today. Hence, in my case, I had a 1968 Red Book and subscription to Coinage Magazine as the sum of my reference guides to coin collecting. Both of these had lists of coin values or coins for sale. I focused on Lincoln penny rolls picked up at the bank, using my monthly allowance to get them. In those rolls I would aim to fill the folder slots with dates, replace any I could with upgrades over time, and if I was lucky enough to find an Indian Penny, that would go into the extra slots on the last page of the folder. Of course after studying the Red Book and constant examination of the Coinage for sale lists, it was very clear which cents were the dream coins to find in the rolls because they had the most zeros in their prices. I always imagined the day that that 1909-S VDB or 1955 Double Die would turn up but like for most of us, they never did.

So now that I am buying and selling at Desert Moon, I guess no one should be surprised that I buy pq for the grade key date pennies when I can find them. Hey if my list in a few years is full of 1877s, 1909-S VDBs, 1914-Ds, 1922 no Ds, 1955 DDs, etc., and no other coins, well what can I say? So far though, it has not come to this. In 2 years, I am on my second 1877, and only a few S-VDBs and one 1914-D, have come through Desert Moon. No 1955 DDs until this CCS. Simply, I am much, much, much, more picky than I was as a kid where almost any old coin was great, and of course now I am into far higher grades than the dream coin of the 1960’s would or could have been. Sure, one can find these with regular frequency at present, but almost all of them just don’t meet my expectations and despite my love affair with these, thankfully the Desert Moon list of coins is not swamped by them. Whew.

Nevertheless, I am offering in this CCS, 3 of these key date small cents, and a Lincoln Matte Proof. I talked about the Matte Proofs in a recent CCS, and why I think they are such cool coins. But these are the first 1955 Double Die cents I have found and liked, that were not way way overpriced. As by now you the reader knows, I largely buy CACed/CACG coins because of their high standards for quality. Surprisingly, while many of these key date cent examples are on the marketplace quite often, those that meet CAC expectations are not all that easy to come by. Hence I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to offer them here. Much has been written on all of these key dates and matte proof coins, and I encourage anyone interested in them to learn about their histories on the web and in publications. Such cool coins……………

As with the more recent CCSs and Newsletters, you can click on the images below and it will take you to the listing on our DM website.

As always, please contact us through desertmoonnm@yahoo.com if you have an interest in any of our coins.

Thanks for reading!

Best, DM