Took 4 Weeks - My First S - 1974 Penny

Back in 1974 the mint somehow got the idea that countless millions of one cent coins were being set aside every year and this especially applied to the S-mints. I'm sure it was not nearly so many as they had come to believe and today BU rolls of all S-mints of the era are higher than the others.

They did something very unusual and shipped millions of these to the east where they were mixed in with the output of other mints. they also brought in other mint cents to mix with the S-mints. The thinking was if they made it harder to get clean solid date rolls fewer would be saved. It must have worked at least a little because the '74 is the highest priced roll.

All three of the '74 cents come as large dates and small dates with all mint set coins being large dates. Mintages were large even for the sm dt so they've attracted little interest but nice pristine examples of all the sm dts are not very common and the S-mint is somewhat elusive, especially in quantity.