1960 Lincoln Memorial Cent
Circulation strike struck at the Philadelphia Mint · 586,405,000 made
- Mintage
- 586,405,000
- Metal
- 95% copper, 5% tin and zinc
- Weight
- 3.11 g
- Diameter
- 19.05 mm
Original illustration. Tap to flip. Not a photograph of the actual coin.
Face value · Metal value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is a 1960 Lincoln Memorial Cent worth?
A worn 1960 is a spender: face value. A bright uncirculated one, or one with a known error, is worth setting aside.
What would make yours worth more:
- Uncirculated condition with full original luster
- Full red copper color (labeled RD) rather than brown
- A known variety for the date: 1960 Small Date Lincoln Cent
For market prices, check recent sold results for certified coins in the same grade.
Check your coin for the 1960 Small Date Lincoln Cent. It is a known date size variety for this date and mint.
Quick answers
- Is the 1960 Lincoln Memorial Cent rare?
- Not in absolute terms: 586 million were made. It is one of the smaller runs in the series, though, so uncirculated examples are worth a little more than most dates.
- Where is the mint mark on a 1960 Lincoln Memorial Cent?
- On the obverse, below the date. Philadelphia cents have no mint mark (except the 2017-P, which is a Lincoln Shield cent).
- Which Philadelphia dates near 1960 are scarcer?
- The 1965 at 301,470,000. So the 1960 is on the scarcer side for those years.
- How many 1960 Lincoln Memorial Cent coins were made?
- 586,405,000.
What to check on your 1960
- There's no mint mark on this one, so the date and condition are what matter.
- Look for the 1960 Small Date Lincoln Cent.
- Proof or circulation strike? A proof has mirror-like fields and frosted design details and was sold to collectors, not released in change. The 1960 Lincoln Memorial Cent Proof (1,691,602 made) is the one to compare with.
- Judge the grade under good light. Wear first shows on Lincoln's cheekbone and hair. Doubled-die varieties from 1969-S, 1972, 1983 (reverse), 1984 and 1995 are the big money coins, so always check the lettering under magnification.
With 586,405,000 made, you can still find a 1960 in rolls, old jars and inherited collections. The coins worth keeping are the uncirculated ones and any with a doubled die or other variety.
The story of the 1960
At 586,405,000, the 1960 run at Philadelphia was close to the 1959 figure. The next year it made 753 million (1961).
1960-D came to 1.6 billion, so neither mint's 1960 coin is much scarcer than the other.
Only the 1965 has a lower mintage among Philadelphia's 50 Lincoln Memorial Cents. Within the 1960s it's 4th smallest of 19, between the 1969-S (544 million) and the 1962 (606 million).
The Memorial reverse and the coin shortage (1959 to 1964)
For the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's birth, Frank Gasparro's Lincoln Memorial reverse replaced the wheat ears in 1959. A tiny statue of Lincoln is visible inside the building, so the cent shows his likeness on both sides. Mintages climbed above a billion at Denver every year of this era.
The main variety is the 1960 small date and large date. The Mint changed the date punch early in the year. Philadelphia small date coins are the scarcer issue. The 1960-D also has a small date over large date variety. A nationwide coin shortage in the early 1960s, blamed on vending machines and hoarding of silver coins, led the Mint to keep striking cents dated 1964 into 1965. Proofs were struck at Philadelphia through 1964. Red uncirculated coins are plentiful.
Elsewhere in US coinage in 1960
The date on the cent was redesigned during 1960, creating the "Large Date" and "Small Date" varieties.
How to recognize it
The obverse keeps Victor David Brenner's portrait of Lincoln with the date and mint mark on the right. The reverse, by Frank Gasparro, shows the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., with a tiny statue of Lincoln visible between the central columns. E PLURIBUS UNUM is above the building and ONE CENT below. Look for the FG initials to the right of the steps.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Series | Lincoln Memorial Cent (1959–2008) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1960 |
| Mint | Philadelphia Mint |
| Mint mark | None |
| Strike type | Circulation strike |
| Mintage | 586,405,000 |
| Face value | 1¢ |
| Composition | 95% copper, 5% tin and zinc (bronze) |
| Weight | 3.11 grams |
| Diameter | 19.05 mm |
| Edge | Plain |
| Designer | Victor David Brenner (obverse); Frank Gasparro (reverse) |
Other 1960 Lincoln Memorial Cent issues
| Coin | Mintage | Type | Silver |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 Lincoln Memorial Cent | 586,405,000 | Circulation strike | – |
| 1960 Lincoln Memorial Cent Proof | 1,691,602 | Proof | – |
| 1960 Lincoln Memorial Cent Proof (Small Date) | – | Variety | – |
| 1960-D Lincoln Memorial Cent | 1,580,884,000 | Circulation strike | – |
Mintage: Lincoln cent mintage figures (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from US Mint records and the Guide Book of United States Coins. How we build these pages.