AboutMyCoin1938 Wheat Penny (No Mint Mark) in MS70BN
A 1938 Wheat penny with no mint mark graded MS70BN is that coin in one particular state of preservation — the date and the mint mark are already fixed, and MS70BN is what a grader called the surface that survived. What that looks like on this coin is below. Where the grade sits against the rungs either side of it, and every way it is written on a slab, are in the table below.
What MS70BN means
A 1938 Wheat penny with no mint mark in Mint State (MS-70) Brown is flawless at magnification: no wear, no marks, no weakness in the strike, full lustre everywhere. It is the top of the scale and it is almost never awarded to a coin that was struck for circulation, so a listing offering one deserves the certification number checked before anything else. Brown is what copper becomes: the mint red has oxidised away across all but a few per cent of both faces. Nearly every 1938 Wheat penny with no mint mark that has spent decades outside an airtight holder is brown, and brown is much the cheapest of the three colours.
A slab, a dealer’s list or a price guide may write this grade MS70 BN, MS-70BN or MS-70 BN. They are the same grade and the same 1938 Wheat penny with no mint mark.
Where this grade sits
The grades a 1938 Wheat penny with no mint mark is given run from PO1 to MS70RD. MS70BN is the top of that scale, so there is no grade above it to step up to. In general terms, the higher the grade the more the coin is worth.
A blank in the value column is a grade this site has not researched, not a grade the coin is worth nothing in.
How to check this yourself
Sold listings, not asking prices. The link below is already filtered to completed sales of a 1938 Wheat penny with no mint mark in MS70BN, which is the difference between what somebody paid and what somebody hoped for. Until this site has a researched figure for this grade, that search is the answer — take the middle of several recent sales rather than the highest.
Completed sales of a 1938 Wheat Penny (No Mint Mark) in MS70BN →
Where these figures come from
We gather publicly available data from several public sources including eBay, PCGS, NGC, Numista, USA Coin Book, PriceCharting, and others.
Not an appraisal. AboutMyCoin estimates from published specifications and does not authenticate or grade coins.
1938 Wheat Penny (No Mint Mark): every grade, the metal and the specification →