AboutMyCoinKey Date Coins and Why They Are Worth More
A key date is the scarcest issue in a series, usually because of a low mintage in one year at one mint, and it is the reason that two otherwise identical-looking coins can differ in value by a thousand times.
Key date coins are struck 1889–1934 and reach dollars, cents, dimes and quarters.
Key date is a category collectors and dealers use in conversation rather than a fact stamped on a coin.
Everything expensive in a common series is a key date, and every key date is identified by reading the coin rather than by judging it. A year and a mint mark, in a specific combination: that is the whole test, and it is the reason the identification checklist comes before the value on every coin page here.
Key dates are also the coins most often counterfeited and most often altered -- a mint mark added, a digit reworked. A coin that would be worth four figures is worth authenticating by a grading service before it is worth anything at all.
These coins are not all made of the same thing, which is why they live in different parts of the catalogue: silver and copper and bronze. The metal is the difference that matters most to the value, so it is the difference the URL records.
Key date coins
1889-CC Morgan Dollar
An 1889-CC Morgan dollar is one of the key dates of the series: 350,000 were struck, it is 90% silver, 10% copper, and contains 0.7734 troy ounces of silver, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
1892-S Morgan Dollar
An 1892-S Morgan dollar is one of the key dates of the series: 1,200,000 were struck, it is 90% silver, 10% copper, and contains 0.7734 troy ounces of silver, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
1893-S Morgan Dollar
An 1893-S Morgan dollar is one of the key dates of the series: 100,000 were struck, it is 90% silver, 10% copper, and contains 0.7734 troy ounces of silver, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
1894 Morgan Dollar (No Mint Mark)
An 1894 Morgan dollar is one of the key dates of the series: 110,000 were struck, it is 90% silver, 10% copper, and contains 0.7734 troy ounces of silver, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
1895 Proof Morgan Dollar (No Mint Mark)
An 1895 Morgan dollar with no mint mark exists only as a proof — 880 were struck, 90% silver with 0.7734 troy ounces in it — and the 12,000 circulation strikes the Mint’s own report records for that year have never been found, so a worn one is a coin to have authenticated before anything else.
1909-S Wheat Penny with VDB
A 1909-S Wheat penny with the VDB initials is 95% copper, 5% tin and zinc with no silver in it at all — and it is the scarcer of the two reverses San Francisco used that year, 484,000 of the 1,825,000 struck.
1909-S Wheat Penny
A 1909-S Wheat penny is one of the key dates of the series: 1,825,000 were struck, it is 95% copper, 5% tin and zinc with no silver in it at all, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
1914-D Wheat Penny
A 1914-D Wheat penny is one of the key dates of the series: 1,193,000 were struck, it is 95% copper, 5% tin and zinc with no silver in it at all, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
1916-D Mercury Dime
A 1916-D Mercury dime is one of the key dates of the series: 264,000 were struck, it is 90% silver, 10% copper, and contains 0.0723 troy ounces of silver, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
1921 Mercury Dime (No Mint Mark)
A 1921 Mercury dime is one of the key dates of the series: 1,230,000 were struck, it is 90% silver, 10% copper, and contains 0.0723 troy ounces of silver, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
1921 Peace Dollar (No Mint Mark)
A 1921 Peace dollar is one of the key dates of the series: 1,006,473 were struck, it is 90% silver, 10% copper, and contains 0.7734 troy ounces of silver, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
1921-D Mercury Dime
A 1921-D Mercury dime is one of the key dates of the series: 1,080,000 were struck, it is 90% silver, 10% copper, and contains 0.0723 troy ounces of silver, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
1924-D Wheat Penny
A 1924-D Wheat penny is one of the key dates of the series: 2,520,000 were struck, it is 95% copper, 5% tin and zinc with no silver in it at all, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
1926-S Mercury Dime
A 1926-S Mercury dime is one of the key dates of the series: 1,520,000 were struck, it is 90% silver, 10% copper, and contains 0.0723 troy ounces of silver, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
1927 Peace Dollar (No Mint Mark)
A 1927 Peace dollar is one of the key dates of the series: 848,000 were struck, it is 90% silver, 10% copper, and contains 0.7734 troy ounces of silver, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
1927-S Peace Dollar
A 1927-S Peace dollar is one of the key dates of the series: 866,000 were struck, it is 90% silver, 10% copper, and contains 0.7734 troy ounces of silver, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
1928 Peace Dollar (No Mint Mark)
A 1928 Peace dollar is one of the key dates of the series: 360,649 were struck, it is 90% silver, 10% copper, and contains 0.7734 troy ounces of silver, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
1931-S Wheat Penny
A 1931-S Wheat penny is one of the key dates of the series: 866,000 were struck, it is 95% copper, 5% tin and zinc with no silver in it at all, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
1932-D Washington Quarter
A 1932-D Washington quarter is the key date of the series: 436,800 were struck in the first year of issue, it is 90% silver with 0.1808 troy ounces in it, and even a heavily worn example is worth many times its metal.
1932-S Washington Quarter
A 1932-S Washington quarter is one of the key dates of the series: 408,000 were struck, it is 90% silver, 10% copper, and contains 0.1808 troy ounces of silver, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
1934 Peace Dollar (No Mint Mark)
A 1934 Peace dollar is one of the key dates of the series: 954,057 were struck, it is 90% silver, 10% copper, and contains 0.7734 troy ounces of silver, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
1934-S Peace Dollar
A 1934-S Peace dollar is one of the key dates of the series: 1,011,000 were struck, it is 90% silver, 10% copper, and contains 0.7734 troy ounces of silver, and even a worn example is worth many times its metal.
What the metal in these adds up to, with the weights and the arithmetic and none of the above, is melt value of Key date coins.