1962 Penny Value: 1962 and 1962-D Lincoln Cents, Varieties

A 1962 or 1962-D Lincoln cent is worth face value in circulated condition as of October 2026. The money is in bright red uncirculated coins: a red MS65 lists at $18 to $20 in the PCGS price guide and about $17 at CopperCoins, and only MS67 red coins, which have sold for $154-275 (1962) and $216-1,020 (1962-D) since 2020, reach the hundreds. Proof coins and a short list of doubled dies are the only other real premiums.

Both dates are common. The Philadelphia Mint struck 606,045,000 cents in 1962 and Denver struck 1,793,148,400, according to CopperCoins, so finding one in change means nothing special. Color, grade and a few doubled-die varieties decide the price.

Quick answer

• A worn 1962 or 1962-D cent is worth face value. Both mints made well over half a billion coins.
• Red uncirculated coins: PCGS lists $3-7 in red MS63, $18-20 in red MS65 and $24-32 in red MS66; CopperCoins is close at $2.60-4.20, $17 and $34-52.
• Top red grades: PCGS lists red MS67 at $350 (1962) and $1,100 (1962-D), CopperCoins at $290 and $930. Sales: 1962 MS67RD $154-275 (2022-2023), MS67+ $240-384 (2025); 1962-D MS67RD $216-1,020 (2020-2023), MS67+ $1,050 (May 2025).
• Doubled dies: the 1962-D doubled die obverse, CopperCoins 1DO-001, runs from about $1 in F12 to about $20 in gem red. Proof doubled dies list at $15 to $60.
• Proof 1962 cents, red: about $6 in PR65 and $33 in PR69.

How do you check a 1962 penny, step by step?

Work through these in order. Most coins stop at the first or second step.

1. Find the mint mark. The date is on the front. Denver coins have a small D under the date. Philadelphia coins have no mint mark at all.
2. Judge the wear. Look at Lincoln's cheek and jaw, the hair above his ear, and the columns of the Lincoln Memorial on the back. Any flatness means circulated, and a circulated 1962 is worth face value.
3. Judge the color on uncirculated coins. Bronze cents are graded red (RD), red-brown (RB) or brown (BN). Only full red coins bring the red prices. In the same guide a Philadelphia MS63 brown coin lists at $0.10, while the red one lists at $4.20.
4. Check the date for doubling. Under a 10x loupe, compare the 2 of the date with a normal 1962-D in the same light. A second outline on the 2 is the place to look for the Denver doubled die.
5. Check the lettering on the back. CopperCoins also catalogs doubled-die reverses on both mints. Die chips and machine damage can also leave an extra outline, so a single faint shadow proves nothing on its own.
6. Check proofs separately. Philadelphia struck 3,218,019 proof cents in 1962, packed in proof sets. Look at the set packaging and at the cent itself, which has a mirror-like background.
7. Price from sold results for the same mint, color, grade and variety.

What is a 1962 penny worth?

Guide values below are PCGS CoinFacts, with CopperCoins in brackets where it differs; sales are PCGS-recorded auction results. Guide values are approximate and not offers to buy or sell. Circulated coins of both dates are face value.

Brown coins are much cheaper. In the CopperCoins guide, a brown MS65 from either mint lists at $2.40. Proof cents follow a separate scale: a red PR63 lists at $3.50, PR65 at $6.20, PR67 at $14.25 and PR69 at $32.50.

The guides are not the whole story. PCGS records show red 1962-D cents selling for $10 in MS65 and $12-24 in MS66, below either guide, while MS67 results scatter from $216 to $1,020 depending on the coin and the year. PCGS calls the 1962-D the second most difficult Memorial cent to find in MS66 red or better, because most came from mint bags and rolls that yield MS62 to MS64 coins with nicks and dull luster. Read the MS67 figures as a hedged range that a dealer or auction house will confirm, not as a quote.

Reading a grade matters as much as reading a color. Uncirculated coins are graded on a scale from MS60, with visible marks, up to MS70, a perfect coin. The steepest step in the red column is between MS66 and MS67: a Philadelphia red coin lists at $24 in MS66 and $350 in MS67 at PCGS, which is why one grade can change the value of the same date so much. For how the scale works, see the coin grading scale guide in this series.

How do proof 1962 cents differ?

Proofs are struck separately from business coins, from polished dies and blanks, so their fields are mirror-like and their devices frosted. Philadelphia made 3,218,019 proof cents in 1962, packed in sets. A red proof lists at about $3.50 in PR63 and $6.20 in PR65 in the CopperCoins guide, and the top grades reach $32.50 in PR69. Check the cent in the set on its own, because a set in good condition is worth more for its packaging and completeness than for the single cent.

Which 1962 varieties are worth money?

Three kinds of variety matter, and none of them is a small date. The 1960 small date is a separate issue, covered in our 1960 penny value guide.

• The 1962-D doubled die obverse, CopperCoins 1DO-001. The doubling shows on the 2 of the date, and the die is classed as pivoted hub doubling. The guide lists $1 in F12, $2 in VF20, $3 in EF40, $5 in uncirculated and $20 in gem, with no red premium shown for this variety.
• Proof doubled dies, Philadelphia. CopperCoins lists 1962-P 1DO-010P at $15 in PR63, $30 in PR65 and $60 in PR67, and 1DO-030P at $15, $25 and $45 in the same grades.
• Repunched mint marks and minor doubling. CopperCoins counts 49 doubled-die obverses, 27 doubled-die reverses and 39 repunched Denver mint marks across both mints. Most are minor and worth little more than a regular coin.

Be careful with a mint mark that looks doubled. CopperCoins warns that a dent from the mint mark punch is often mistaken for a repunched mint mark, and it is a different thing entirely.

What changed in 1962?

The alloy changed in the middle of the year. Congress authorized the change in an act approved September 5, 1962, which removed the tin from the cent and left it at 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc, according to the Wikipedia article on the Lincoln cent. Both compositions exist, and CopperCoins says the difference cannot be detected by eye. Do not try to sort by alloy, because it does not change the value. The weight is 3.11 grams for bronze cents from 1909 to 1982.

Why are 1962 cents so common?

Volume. Both mints struck cents in the hundreds of millions, and the Lincoln cent was in daily use, so most survivors passed through pockets, registers and jars. The design was also settled: CopperCoins lists the 1962 cent with the 1960 large date obverse, with the Lincoln Memorial reverse that began in 1959. Nothing about the date makes a 1962 rare in itself, which is why the price comes from the coin's condition and color rather than its year.

Color is the part most people miss. Copper coins darken and brown as they circulate and as they sit in the air, so a coin that is still fully red has been protected from wear and toning. That is why the guide's red column is several times the brown column at the same grade. A bright red 1962 in a sealed roll is worth far more than the same date in a circulated jar.

A worked example

Say you find a 1962 cent in a box of old change. It is brown, worn smooth at the rim, and has no mark under the date. It is a Philadelphia coin and worth face value.

Now say you open a bank roll of 1962-D cents and one coin is bright red, with full luster on the cheek and no marks on the hair. Under a 10x loupe, the 2 of the date shows a faint second outline. The red color makes the coin worth a close look: PCGS lists a red MS65 Denver cent at $20 and a red MS66 at $32, and CopperCoins at $16.75 and $52. The doubling matters too. If it is the 1DO-001 variety, the guide prices it from $1 in F12 to $20 in gem, and red color on top of that is what a buyer will ask about. Before you price it, send a clear close-up to a variety specialist or show it at a coin club, and let them confirm the doubling before you pay for grading.

Common mistakes

• Expecting a small date. The 1962 cent is not a small-date coin. Only the 1960 Philadelphia small date carries that premium.
• Calling a brown coin red. A brown cent is a few dollars at most in the guide, even when it looks clean. Check the color in daylight before you price it.
• Confusing a punch dent with a repunched mint mark. A dent from the punch can look like a double, and CopperCoins warns about it specifically.
• Pricing a worn coin from the red column. Most of the value sits in top red grades, which are rare in circulation.
• Expecting silver. A 1962 cent is bronze, not silver, so its value is set by collector demand, not by the silver price.
• Cleaning the coin. Cleaning removes the original surface and the red color that drives every uncirculated price. See should you clean old coins.

How WorthPic reads 1962 penny photos

WorthPic runs on the newest and most capable AI model available, tuned for exactly this kind of identification. From photos of both sides it reads the date and mint mark, judges wear and color, and notes whether a coin looks like a proof. It can see a doubled 2 when the photo is sharp enough, and it says which close-up would settle a doubling question. It cannot confirm a die variety from a soft or angled photo, and it cannot assign a grade like MS67. It gives an honest value range in US dollars with a most likely figure. It identifies and estimates. It does not authenticate, grade or appraise.

What to photograph

• The front straight on, in even daylight, with the date sharp.
• The date and mint mark close up, filling the frame, from straight on and from a slight angle.
• The back straight on, so the wear on Lincoln's columns and the lettering is visible.
• The color close up, in daylight, to separate red from brown.
• Proofs in their packaging, with the set visible.

When to get it looked at in person

A worn 1962 or 1962-D cent needs no expert. Spend it, or keep it in a jar. A red uncirculated coin that looks like a possible doubled die is worth showing to a coin club or a variety dealer first. If the coin is strong enough to sell at a high price, attribution and grading by PCGS or NGC is what buyers pay for, and the coin grading scale explains what the grades mean. For other dates in the jar, see what pennies are worth money, and for how doubling happens, our guide to error coins worth money.

Sources

• PCGS CoinFacts: 1962 1C, RD and 1962-D 1C, RD: mintages, guide values by grade, the MS66 scarcity note and the MS65 to MS67+ auction records.
• CopperCoins: 1962 Lincoln Cent date guide: die variety counts and the approximate red, brown and proof values quoted above.
• CopperCoins: 1962-D doubled die obverse, 1DO-001: the doubling on the 2 of the date and the grade table from F12 to gem.
• Wikipedia: Lincoln cent: the 1962 change to 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc, the September 5, 1962 act, and the 3.11 gram weight.