AboutMyCoin1953-S Wheat Penny in MS63BN
A 1953-S Wheat penny graded MS63BN is that coin in one particular state of preservation — the date and the mint mark are already fixed, and MS63BN 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 MS63BN means
A 1953-S Wheat penny in Mint State (MS-63) Brown has no wear at all, because it never circulated. What separates it from the mint state grades above is contact marks rather than wear: the open fields before and behind Lincoln’s portrait carry scattered nicks picked up in the mint bag, and the lustre is unbroken but not exceptional. Brown is what copper becomes: the mint red has oxidised away across all but a few per cent of both faces. Nearly every 1953-S Wheat penny 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 MS63 BN, MS-63BN or MS-63 BN. They are the same grade and the same 1953-S Wheat penny.
Where this grade sits
The grades a 1953-S Wheat penny is given run from PO1 to MS70RD. One step up from MS63BN is Mint State (MS-64) Brown. 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 1953-S Wheat penny in MS63BN, 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.
1953-S Wheat Penny: every grade, the metal and the specification →