AboutMyCoin1946 Wheat Penny (No Mint Mark) in MS68RD
A 1946 Wheat penny with no mint mark graded MS68RD is that coin in one particular state of preservation — the date and the mint mark are already fixed, and MS68RD 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 MS68RD means
A 1946 Wheat penny with no mint mark in Mint State (MS-68) Red is finer than all but a handful ever certified: no wear, lustre that is complete and undisturbed, and at most one or two marks small enough that a grader had to hunt for them. Almost nothing from a circulating mintage survives at this level, because the coin had to escape the bag, the counting machine and sixty years of storage untouched. Red means at least ninety-five per cent of the original mint red is still on both faces. Copper starts to turn the day it leaves the press, so red on a 1946 Wheat penny with no mint mark is a statement about how it was stored rather than about how it was struck, and it is worth a multiple of the same coin in brown.
A slab, a dealer’s list or a price guide may write this grade MS68 RD, MS-68RD or MS-68 RD. They are the same grade and the same 1946 Wheat penny with no mint mark.
Where this grade sits
The grades a 1946 Wheat penny with no mint mark is given run from PO1 to MS70RD. One step up from MS68RD is Mint State (MS-69) Red. In general terms, the higher the grade the more the coin is worth.
How to check this yourself
Sold listings, not asking prices. The link below is already filtered to completed sales of a 1946 Wheat penny with no mint mark in MS68RD, 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 1946 Wheat Penny (No Mint Mark) in MS68RD →
Not an appraisal. AboutMyCoin estimates from published specifications and does not authenticate or grade coins.
1946 Wheat Penny (No Mint Mark): every grade, the metal and the specification →