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 Replies: 16 / Views: 582 |
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Valued Member
United States
73 Posts |
Hello I am just on the hunt for two maybe three 1970s small date Lincoln cents. The real small dates not the ebay ones which are usually large dates. |
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Moderator
 United States
15381 Posts |
Understood, I think. Do you have a question? Or are you just telling us about a collecting goal?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1107 Posts |
I'd recommend going to your local doin store.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10470 Posts |
I'd suggest Auction sites like Great Collections, - although look at the graded coins thoroughly - some Large Dates have been graded as Small Dates..........
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Valued Member
 United States
73 Posts |
Yes it's disgusting to see how many large dates are being sold as small dates. You gotta think it's on purpose too, which is a bummer. And yes, I have seen even slabbed large dates mistaken as small dates. It's discouraging. Are these really that hard to find also? I find it really difficult to even find any, and if I do, they are several hundred dollars each. Am I missing something?
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10470 Posts |
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I find it really difficult to even find any, and if I do, they are several hundred dollars each. Am I missing something? I don't know - I seem to get lucky and buy them from Great Collections for around $50 to $70 bid - MS64 to MS66 |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19930 Posts |
Be careful! Most people and even dealers cannot correctly attribute the small date. It's one of the most mislabeled cents in collecting.
Lincoln Cent Lover!VERDI-CARE™ INVENTOR https://verdi.care/
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1107 Posts |
This is one of the reasons that I haven't opted to purchase one of the "small date" coins.
Oldpueblocoin, aka ben the coin geek, usually has some in the 50-60 dollar range slabbed.
I'd trust him personally.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2270 Posts |
There are little variations in how these appear. Some sm dts have a relatively strong motto. Most have striking characteristics to positively confirm it's a sm dt.
The problem is with the large date that has many types and striking varieties. I believe there's even a medium date easily confused with either that is quite scarce in mint sets. But there is a much more common medium date that can only be confused for the large date. You can get mesmerized going through these things to the point everything's a sm dt.
The sm dts are quite common in the mint sets accounting for about 10% of production. Most of these are gone now and many of the sm dts are as well.
There were perhaps as few as a quarter million of these released to circulation but they were almost all distributed before it was discovered so many were dispersed. There just aren't a lot of these.
Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2270 Posts |
Maybe I have seen a few of the sm dts made for circulation. I did find one in change but that nice XF example looked like any mint set coin. I've seen a few coins with a little mushier strike from older dies. You do see chBU rolls of sm dts but in reality it's impossible for an entire roll to be sm dt. People did pull at least a few coins from the pipeline and assemble rolls of them but these have been exhausted for years so the price just keeps going higher. Nice chBU mint set quality coins are far scarcer than people imagine. All of the sm dts still in packaging need to be soaked in alcohol to even grade properly and possibly for long term storage. Problems caused by the packaging increase in time and much damage becomes permanent.
These coins have a lot of marking. The best strikes show that detail like the tops of the letters in the motto were never on that die to begin with. Flashy coins are more common than true Gems but even as made nearly half the production is hard to call chBU because of the marking. Nice choice coins comprised only the best 20% of mint set production. Today the only place to hunt such coins are the mint sets still trickling into coin shops. These sets are degraded today and the one cent coins will almost all need cleaning. If you want a nice choice BU lrg dt you'll need about 4 1970 mint sets. But if you want a small date in nice chBU you'll need 100 sets due to it's much lower quality.
Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
8724 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10470 Posts |
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Here is one I found in a bank roll, use the pics for verification. It's the only one I have ever found while searching hundreds of thousands of coins. Very cool - weak LIBERTY! and IGWT!  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10470 Posts |
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Hello I am just on the hunt for two maybe three 1970s small date Lincoln cents. At my late coin collecting point because age catches up on us all, I have PCGS graded examples to sell - what do you want, what grade, and (oh I hate when I hear this when I try to by Muscle Cars - " I know what I have" -  |
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Moderator
United States
94636 Posts |
I have a nice example of a 1970-S small date, and a 1970-S Proof small date in my collection - but I never gave any thought to see if I could get a P and D small date (do they even exist and if so, how common or rare are they?)  something to me to search for tomorrow. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2270 Posts |
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I have a nice example of a 1970-S small date, and a 1970-S Proof small date in my collection - but I never gave any thought to see if I could get a P and D small date (do they even exist and if so, how common or rare are they?) something to me to search for tomorrow. The '74 P, D, and S all come as small dates. Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8724 Posts |
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Replies: 16 / Views: 582 |
Posted 04/09/2026 5:41 pm
