When you take a look at the mintages of one-cent pieces struck by the U.S. Mint in 1909, you would logically think that the V.D.B cents that they struck for just a short period that year would be the rarest today for collectors -- but that is not the case.
When comparing their total mintages vs their populations today with NGC & PCGS in any condition whatsoever, the truly hard to find coin today is the corrected Lincoln Cent.
And don't just take our word for it -- check out the numbers for yourself:
- 1909 Indian Cent -- Mintage: 14,368,470 vs. just 8,136 known today
That is just 1 in every 1,766 coins struck -- That is just 0.056% of the entire mintage!
- 1909 V.D.B. Cent -- Mintage: 27,995,000 vs. just 49,713 known today
That is just 1 in every 563 coins struck -- That is just 0.18% of the entire mintage!
- 1909 'Corrected' Cent -- Mintage: 72,702,618 vs. just 7,348 known today
That is just 1 in every 9,894 coins struck -- That is just 0.01% of the entire mintage!
While population reports aren't the end-all be-all for how many coins are out there today, they do give you an idea of which coins are harder to find -- and clearly the Corrected Lincoln Cents from 1909 are the REAL sleepers of the year.
