AboutMyCoin1948-S Wheat Penny in AU53
A 1948-S Wheat penny graded AU53 is that coin in one particular state of preservation — the date and the mint mark are already fixed, and AU53 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 AU53 means
A 1948-S Wheat penny in About Uncirculated (AU-53) carries light wear over the highest points of the design, with perhaps half of the original lustre still in the fields: the cheekbone and the jaw of Lincoln’s portrait and the hair above his ear are visibly rubbed, and the tips of the wheat ears and the upper edges of their stalks show the same. It is the lowest of the three About Uncirculated rungs above fifty and the one where the rub is easiest to see, because it covers an area rather than merely touching the peaks.
A slab, a dealer’s list or a price guide may write this grade AU-53. They are the same grade and the same 1948-S Wheat penny.
Where this grade sits
The grades a 1948-S Wheat penny is given run from PO1 to MS70RD. One step up from AU53 is About Uncirculated (AU-55). 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 1948-S Wheat penny in AU53, 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.
Not an appraisal. AboutMyCoin estimates from published specifications and does not authenticate or grade coins.
1948-S Wheat Penny: every grade, the metal and the specification →