1940 Wheat Penny Value: are “D”, “S”, No mint mark worth money?

1940 Wheat Penny is a popular and widely known US coin. But is it valuable? Does it have any errors, and if yes, what are they? What are its history and design?

Learn all this and much more in the lines below!

1940 Wheat Penny Details

• Category: Wheat Penny (1909 – Present)
• Mint(s): Philadephia, Denver, San Francisco
• Mintage: 781,140,000
• Obverse Designer: Victor D Brenner
• Reverse Designer: Victor D Brenner
• Face Value: $0.01 (One cent)
• Composition: 95% Copper – 5% Tin and Zinc
• Weight: 0.109 oz (3.11 g)
• Diameter: 0.748 inches (19 mm)
• Thickness: 0.076 inches (1.95 mm)
• Edge: Plain

Obverse

Wheat Penny was the first US coin that included a portrait of a real and known person, and that person is no one else than the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is why the official name of 1940 is the Lincoln Cent.

The design of the obverse is quite simple, but you do not need to make things complicated when working with a portrait of a US president.

Besides Abraham Lincoln, who is facing to the right, the obverse features the inscription LIBERTY to the left of Lincoln’s neck, the year of minting (1940) to the right of his chest, and the official motto of the United States of America, IN GOD WE TRUST, which can be found along the top edge of the 1940 Wheat Penny.

The mint mark is struck just beneath the date year.

Reverse

Unlike many coins from the time, Wheat Penny has no symbol in the center of the reverse side. Instead, it features the writing of the denomination, ONE CENT, located on the upper half, and the inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA on the lower one.

Along the top edge of the reverse is the traditional motto of the United States, E PLURIBUS UNUM, which is Latin for “Out of many, one”.

Of course, no coin is complete without at least one symbol, and the 1940 Wheat Penny is no exception.

This coin has two wheat stalks, one running along the right and the other along the left edge.

As many of you probably know, wheat is a long-standing symbol of prosperity, abundance, growth, and fertility, and the reason why the Lincoln cent is also called the Wheat Penny.

1940 Lincoln Wheat Penny Value Chart
Condition	1940 No Mint Mark Wheat Penny	1940 D Wheat Penny	1940 S Wheat Penny
Good	$0.19	$0.19	$0.19
Very Good	$0.22	$0.22	$0.22
Fine	$0.24	$0.30	$0.24
Very Fine	$0.48	$0.70	$0.58
Extra Fine	$0.70	$0.88	$1.17
AU	$1.17	$2.32	$2.03
MS 60	$2.32	$3.34	$3.34
MS 63	$3.34	$5.75	$5.75
Proof 63	$52	–	–

1940 Wheat Penny Value And Varieties Guide

Although the United States would not officially enter World War II until the last third of 1941, they started supplying the Aallies in 1940, which is why the 1940 Wheat Penny is considered the first of the Wheat Pennies in the war years.

The mintage during that period and even a couple of years after was quite high, which can be seen from the total mintage of the 1940 Wheat Penny which was 781,140,000 pieces.

1940 No Mint Wheat Penny Value

• Type: Wheat Penny
• Mint: Philadephia
• Mint Mark: No Mint Mark
• Mintage: 586,810,000
• Designer: Victor D Brenner
• Face Value: $0.01 (One cent)
• Composition: 95% Copper – 5% Tin and Zinc
• Weight: 0.109 oz (3.11 g)
• Diameter: 0.74803 inches (19 mm)
• Thickness: 0.07677 inches (1.95 mm)
• Edge: Plain

Out of that number, 586,810,000 coins were struck at the mint in Philadephia without any mint mark. Unfortunately for collectors, 1940 No Mint Mark Wheat Penny is not worth that much money since even the ones in mint state 63, for example, are sold for less than $3.50.

The situation is not much better with brown, red-brown, or even the ones that exhibit a lot of the original red luster, as they can be bought for less than 10 dollars in many cases.

Up until now, only four 1940 Wheat Pennies, all graded MS68, were sold for over $10,000.

1940 Proof Lincoln Wheat Penny Value

• Type: Wheat Penny
• Mint: Philadephia
• Mint Mark: No Mint Mark
• Mintage: 15,872
• Designer: Victor D Brenner
• Face Value: $0.01 (One cent)
• Composition: 95% Copper – 5% Tin and Zinc
• Weight: 0.109 oz (3.11 g)
• Diameter: 0.74803 inches (19 mm)
• Thickness: 0.07677 inches (1.95 mm)
• Edge: Plain

From 1916 until 1936, the production of proof Wheat Pennies was non-existent. However, from 1936 until 1943, US Mint started the minting, which is why they struck 15,872 pieces in 1940 at the mint in Philadephia.

As expected, they are much more valuable than the “No Mint Mark” ones since their prices range from tens of dollars to hundreds of dollars on the regular. On auctions, though, they are never sold for less than $200.

The priciest ones, especially those with the red gloss, are sold for thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars, like the one in 2010 that went for almost $60,000.

1940 D Wheat Penny Value

• Type: Wheat Penny
• Mint: Denver
• Mint Mark: D
• Mintage: 81,390,000
• Designer: Victor D Brenner
• Face Value: $0.01 (One cent)
• Composition: 95% Copper – 5% Tin and Zinc
• Weight: 0.109 oz (3.11 g)
• Diameter: 0.74803 inches (19 mm)
• Thickness: 0.07677 inches (1.95 mm)
• Edge: Plain

The mintage of 1940 D Wheat Penny in Denver was 81,390,000. Similarly to the ones struck at the mint in Philly, they are not expensive and can be obtained for anywhere between 19 cents and 5.75 dollars.

High mintage totals and the fact that these coins have been in circulation forever is what makes them not so wanted, unfortunately.

Brown, red-brown, and red specimens are pricier but not by much – expect to get 2 to 40 dollars for most of them.

Even the best of the best (MS67+RD, MS67) do not get sold at auctions for more than a few thousand US dollars.

1940 S Wheat Penny Value

• Type: Wheat Penny
• Mint: San Francisco
• Mint Mark: S
• Mintage: 112,940,000
• Designer: Victor D Brenner
• Face Value: $0.01 (One cent)
• Composition: 95% Copper – 5% Tin and Zinc
• Weight: 0.109 oz (3.11 g)
• Diameter: 0.74803 inches (19 mm)
• Thickness: 0.07677 inches (1.95 mm)
• Edge: Plain

112,940,000 Wheat Pennies were minted in San Francisco in 1940. They are more or less worth the same as 1940 D Wheat Pennies.

The only actual difference is that the maximum a 1940 S Wheat pennies went for (9,600 dollars) is much higher than the high score of a 1940 D Wheat Penny (3,120 dollars).

Also Read: Top 20 Most Valuable Old Pennies Worth Money (Penny Collection)

1940 Wheat Penny History

All US coins are special and beautiful in their own way, but only one can say that it is the longest-running coin: the Wheat Penny, aka Lincoln cent. This coin was first introduced in 1909, which means that people in the US have been using it for more than 110 years.

Another thing that makes it unique is its feature we already talked about – it was the first coin to have a portrait of a real person on it. It, combined with the fact that the Mint did not spread any of the images of the coin to the public prior to its release, led to tremendous interest.

Since there were long lines of people wanting to buy the Wheat Penny, Treasury decided to limit purchases to 100 coins per person at the New York Sub-Treasury and 2 coins per person at the mint in Philadelphia.

Even though a lot of people wanted and loved the coin, they had one complaint regarding its design – the designer’s initials, Victor D. Brenner, were too big, according to them.

Treasury suspended the production of the Wheat Penny until they made a decision to strike new ones without any initials or with only a smaller “B”.

Since it would take more time to implement the design with the letter B, they decided to mint Wheat Pennies without any initials. Almost 29 million Wheat Pennies with the initials VDB, known as 1909 VDB Wheat Pennies, were struck before the changes were made.

Although the coin designer Breener can be considered unlucky to have his initials completely removed, he can also be considered lucky to be picked to design the coin since he was not the first choice of US President Theodore Roosevelt for this task.

Roosevelt wanted the US coinage to have more artistic qualities and conveyed this to the US Treasury in 1904. He felt that the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens would be the right person for this job, which is why the US Mint hired him to redesign the coins.

He would go on to do precisely this for the four gold coins: the double eagle ($20), eagle ($10), half eagle ($5), and quarter eagle ($2.50). However, he died before completing his design for the one cent.

Since 1909 was the centennial of the birth year of the assassinated president, Abraham Lincoln, many wanted to honor him by making all kinds of souvenirs. Some of them even wrote to the Treasury and requested them to include Lincoln’s portrait on a US coin.

Roosevelt liked this idea, and after meeting with the sculptor Victor David Brenner, who had previously produced a plaque of Lincoln in 1907 and which the president liked, offered him the job unofficially.

The most significant reason he made this offer is that he liked that plaque. Brenner accepted the unofficial offer from Roosevelt and the official one that came from the US Mint and went on to create a coin that is used until this day.

1940 Wheat Penny Grading

If you think you have valuable 1940 Wheat Pennies in your possession or would just like to learn how to grade them, please check out this video.

List Of 1940 Wheat Penny Errors

1940 Wheat Pennies, and all Wheat Pennies, for that matter, have lots of errors. However, since these errors are not particularly interesting or noteworthy, and many pieces feature these errors, the pennies are not that valuable.

Still, they do have errors, so let’s look at them one by one.

1. 1940 Wheat Penny Clipped Planchet Error

Clipped planchets refer to a type of error in coins whereby the side of the coin has a flat or crescent-shaped section cut off. 1940 Wheat Pennies that have it can be sold in a range between $18 and $65.

2. 1940 Wheat Penny Die Crack Error

When a die is put under high pressure during the minting process, it may crack, resulting in a small gap in the die. Since, in most cases, the gap would not be noticed immediately, the die would continue producing coins, which is why they would end up with the die crack error.

3. 1940 Wheat Penny Double-mint Mark Error

Double-mint mark errors are pretty common, so do not be surprised to see two Ss or Ds overlapping on your coin.

4. 1940 Wheat Penny Off-center Strike Error

Off-center strike errors occur when the planchet is not correctly placed for the die to hit it and transfer the design onto it. The bigger the error. i.e., the less amount of design is transferred to the planchet, the more valuable the coin is.

5. 1940 Wheat Penny Lamination Error

Lamination errors refer to defects on coins where the surface cracks and peels off. These errors are typically thought to occur when contaminants in the metal mixture give way to the separation of the metal horizontally.

1940 Wheat Penny FAQ

How much is a 1940 Wheat Penny worth?

1940 Wheat Pennies are not worth much money. The ones in good or very fine states cost less than a dollar. Even the ones in MS60+ grades rarely exceed 30 dollars.

Are 1940 Wheat Pennies rare?

1940 Wheat Pennies are not rare since their mintage reaches almost 900 million. Only 1940 Proof Wheat Pennies are considered truly rare.

Which 1940 Wheat Pennies are valuable?

The most valuable 1940 Wheat Pennies are 1940 Proof Wheat Pennies with MS67+RD. The second most valuable type of these pennies is 1940 No Mint Mark Wheat Pennies with the grade MS68 or MS68RD.