Throughout the fourth edition of the 100 Greatest United States Modern Coins series by Whitman Publishing, the most mentioned coin to grace the top 100 list is the Lincoln cent. Whether it is a Double Die, mint mark variety, Proof or Uncirculated, the penny has seen the most and been through the most over the years at the United States Mint. It makes sense as its mintage numbers normally far exceed any of the other denominations. Following along with authors Scott Schechter and Jeff Garrett, we will look at another Lincoln cent variation that finds itself near the very bottom of the compilation but may sound familiar to most collectors.
#96 – 1970-S Lincoln Cent, Small Date
The terms Large Date and Small Date is not uncommon in the numismatic hobby. In general, they refer to the size of the digits used on the date of the coin. According to authors Schechter and Garrett, there are two reasons why the United States Mint would change the size of the coin’s date during the production process. The first one is that the design will vary due to modifications being made for aesthetic purposes. Modifying a date is often done to improve the efficiency of the die and the production process.
The 1970-S Lincoln cent was minted with the two date sizes. However, unlike previous issues, there is no record as to why the change was made. This led people to believe that “two different hubs with minor variations were used by the Mint to create dies from the very beginning of the year.” Both Small Date and Large Date 1970-S pennies were found earlier in the year. They were also found far from San Francisco which is where they were minted. Researchers claim that they were distributed throughout the country to combat hoarding, however, the Small Date variety proved to be the rarer of the two. For this reason, the 1970-S Small Date Lincoln Cent is a key date for the Lincoln cent series.
What makes these varieties different from the rest is that the size between the two is not very notable, which makes it difficult see with the naked eye. Something to reference when trying to tell the difference between the Small Date and the Large Date is the ‘7’. For the Small Date, the top of the ‘7’ is in line with the ‘9’ and ‘0’ on either side of it. For the Large Date, the top of the ‘7’ is lower than the ‘9’ and ‘0’.
Since the first edition of this series, the coin has moved up one spot from #97 and stays consistent throughout.