Lincoln Cent

Aside from the 1909 S VDB you could put one together rather cheaply if you arent trying to get everything at a high grade. Most of the moderns you can still find in high grades for face or close. The 1909 S VDB is gonna run a few hundred though and probably cost more than the rest of the set. That and the 1922 will be the two killers, the 1914D is rather pricey too but not like those. Basically you could put together a set cheap (even getting most of them roll searching if you wanted) aside from a hand full of coins

A Red Book would help you mightily in this case.

g04, where are you getting that number? You can find 99% of the Lincoln cents just by roll searching. I'm doing a set from 1909-1982 and here is my breakdown:

$10 for a pair of half-finished books dating to the 1960s that included a bunch of random IHC. I have upgraded most of these Lincoln coins with better ones and the only ones still in my set are the steelies and, I think, one or two from the 1920s.


Ten coins were a gift from jeffrose. Those that were NOT upgrades to my set were the 1909 VDB, 1910, 1912, and one random coin in the 1970's because I insist on my LMC being reds. The rest were all upgrades.

The rest I have found via roll-hunting at work and the occasional box to hunt at home. Here is what I am still missing for a set of all mintmarks (I am not collecting varieties):

1909-D/S, 1910-D/S, 1911-D/S, 1912-D/S, 1913-D/S, 1914-D/S, all three from 1915, 1917-S, 1918-D, 1920-D/S, all of 1921, 1922-D, 1926-S, 1927-D/S, 1929-D, 1931 D/S, 1932-D, all of 1933, 1935-S, 1936-D, 1938, 1938-S, 1939-D, 1942-S, and then I'm not missing anything again until 1962 (when, as noted, I could fill the book easily from circulation but insist on having red coins). So from circulation alone, I've completed about 2/3 of a set, and could easily bump that to 4/5 if not for the hunt for red coins.

If we assume I pay $20 each for the coins remaining (not including keys), that's $700. And really, a lot of these are simply luck of the draw--there is no reason whatsoever to pay $20 for a circulated 1942 ANYTHING in the small denominations.

A thousand bucks if you're putting together a circulation set seems rather exorbitant.

If you can find coin shows there are usually dealers that sell almost completed sets in Albums. Someone I know recently purchased an almost completed set for about $1,000. Naturally many of the key dates were either not there or in really poor condition. People that say you can make a completed set from roll searching are ether excessively lucky or sort of exagerating. I know many people that roll search all the time and are far, far, far from completed sets.

Carl, I must be excessively lucky then. I posted my totals above. I don't think that's too bad for roll-hunting--for only a year.

My dad got a Standing Liberty quarter in his change. Date is worn off but it still nice.

I agree with just about everything in this discussion it's just pure luck. There have been times where I find lots of nice coins and other times there junk. I just bought a obw of 1964D LMC and the roll is so amazing from what I can see I'm afraid to even touch them cause I wanna make sure I don't ruin or miss a variety or rpm that hasn't been discovered so I'll put them all in 2x2 and hope for the best

Great Idea. I have one myself. The hardest one without a thought is the 2013 Penny in Proof. I would say harder to get than the 1909 S.