1963 Penny Value: Denver Doubled Die and Top Grades

A circulated 1963 or 1963-D penny is worth about 5 cents as of October 2026, and an ordinary brown uncirculated one about 10 cents. The money sits in two places: bright red coins at the top of the grading scale, and the 1963-D doubled die obverse, FS-101, a listed variety that CopperCoins values at $25 uncirculated. PCGS lists a red MS66 at $24 for Philadelphia and $80 for Denver, and the real jump is MS67: red 1963 cents sold for $372-800 and 1963-D cents for $552-6,300 at that grade between 2019 and 2025.

Those are guide figures and a handful of auction results, and sales of red 1963 cents in the top grades are thin. Most 1963 pennies are common, and the checks below take a few minutes with a loupe and the coin in good light.

Quick answer

• A worn 1963 or 1963-D penny is worth about 5 cents, as of October 2026.
• A brown uncirculated 1963 or 1963-D is guided at about 10 cents.
• Red coins carry the value: PCGS lists MS65 red at $18 (Philadelphia) and $20 (Denver), MS66 red at $24 and $80, and MS67 red at $850 and $9,000; CopperCoins runs a little higher at $14.50-16.75 in MS65 and $46.50-92 in MS66.
• Realized sales: 1963 MS67RD $372-800 (2019-2022) and MS67+ $2,350 (2021); 1963-D MS66+RD $288-1,763 and MS67RD $552-6,300 (2013-2025).
• The 1963-D doubled die obverse, FS-101, is guided at $3 in F12 and $25 uncirculated for medium doubling.
• Flat, shelf-like doubling on a date is usually strike doubling, which is common and adds nothing.

How do you value a 1963 penny, step by step?

Check the design, the mint mark, the wear and the color. Then look closely at the date of any Denver coin for the doubled die.

1. Confirm it is a Memorial cent. Turn it over. The reverse shows the Lincoln Memorial, not wheat stalks. Every 1963 cent has the Memorial, so a wheat reverse means you are holding an older coin.
2. Read the mint mark. It sits under the date on the front. No letter means Philadelphia, which struck 754,110,000 business strike cents in 1963. A D means Denver, which struck 1,774,020,400. San Francisco's cent coinage had stopped after 1955, so there is no 1963 S cent to find in change.
3. Judge wear. Look at Lincoln's cheekbone, his jaw and the hair above his ear, and at the columns of the Memorial on the back. Flat, smooth high points mean circulated, and a circulated coin of either mint is worth about 5 cents.
4. Judge color. Uncirculated coins are graded red, red-brown or brown. Brown uncirculated coins are guided at about 10 cents. The value rises only with an original red color and strong luster.
5. Check the date on a Denver coin. Under a 10x loupe, look for a very low 3 sitting under the normal 3. That is the tilted hub doubling of FS-101. Clear, strong doubling in the date is the feature to check, and it is the one that matters for value.
6. Rule out machine doubling. Strike doubling shows as a flat, shelf-like ledge beside a letter or digit. It is common and adds nothing to the price.
7. Rule out cleaning. A cleaned coin looks bright, flat and dull, with fine hairline scratches. It sells for little above a circulated coin.
8. Price from sold results for the same mint, grade and color. A guide figure is a starting point, not a sale.

What is a 1963 penny worth?

Prices as of October 2026. Guide values are PCGS CoinFacts (with CopperCoins in brackets where it differs), and sales are PCGS-recorded auction results. Guide values are not sales.

The two mints are close at the bottom of the scale. The gap opens at MS66 and becomes a chasm at MS67, where PCGS has graded only about 20 Denver coins in red. That scarcity, not the date, is why a 1963-D sold for $6,300 in 2025 while an MS66 of the same coin sells for under $150.

Top grades need the most care. CopperCoins lists MS67 red at $660 for Philadelphia and $4,500 for Denver, and PCGS at $850 and $9,000. The sales support the direction but not any single number: Philadelphia MS67RD coins brought $372-800 between 2019 and 2022, and Denver MS67RD coins $552 in April 2023 and $6,300 at Heritage in May 2025. Anything at that grade should be priced from the most recent PCGS or NGC sale, not from a guide.

What is the 1963-D doubled die penny?

FS-101 is the Fivaz-Stanton number for the variety, and CopperCoins catalogs it as 1963-D 1DO-001, a doubled die obverse classed as tilted hub doubling. The doubling is on the date. A very low 3 sits under the normal 3, and in the early die states that second image is stronger. Die scratches are the clue to the state: early states show numerous scratches through LIBERTY and the date, and late states show fewer.

CopperCoins gives values for the middle die state and says to double them for the early state and take 25 percent off for the late one. The early and late columns below are my arithmetic from that rule, not separately published prices.

Lincoln Cent Resource's doubled die list includes only one 1963 entry, the 1963-D DDO 1, and gives no value for it. The site says its list covers only a handful of the hundreds of doubled dies, so a missing entry is not proof of absence. To separate FS-101 from ordinary strike doubling, compare the date with a normal 1963-D under the same light. The variety shows a clear second 3 with a rounded edge, not a flat ledge beside each digit.

Are there other 1963 varieties?

CopperCoins counts 44 Philadelphia doubled die obverses and 20 doubled die reverses, plus 40 Denver doubled die obverses, 7 Denver reverses and 32 Denver repunched mint marks. The guide calls doubled dies "quite plentiful this year" and says most repunched mint marks are "quite minor". It also describes one uncommon Denver doubled die, a normal 3 over a partly removed low 3 in the date, at about $10 to $15 uncirculated.

That description may overlap with FS-101, and the two figures do not agree. Before you price a Denver date doubling, pin down the FS number, because the number decides which guide figure applies.

Is a 1963 penny worth grading?

Only if you honestly believe it reaches red MS65 or MS66: full luster, even orange color, and no spots, nicks or hairlines in the fields under a 5x loupe. At the PCGS red MS65 figures of $18 to $20, grading fees and shipping cost more than the coin adds, and even MS66 red, at $24 to $80, rarely covers the fee. MS67 red, where coins have sold for $372-6,300, is the level where a submission makes sense, and that takes a flawless coin. Check current PCGS and NGC fees on their websites before you send anything. Our coin grading scale guide explains what separates MS65 from MS66.

A worked example

Say you pull a roll of 1963 cents from a bank wrapper. Most are brown and worn, and each is worth about 5 cents. One Denver coin is bright and orange-red, with a faint freckle on Lincoln's cheek. You check the date under a 10x loupe and see a clear second 3 slightly low and to one side, rather than a flat ledge.

That is a candidate for FS-101. The middle die state is guided at $25 uncirculated, and a sharp early state with scratches through LIBERTY would be worth about double. The freckle keeps it below a clean MS65, so the red value you can rely on is lower than the top figure. Because the variety pays only in a confirmed attribution, take it to a variety specialist first, then to PCGS or NGC for attribution before anyone pays a premium. A plain red Philadelphia coin with no variety is listed at $18 in MS65 by PCGS, and the rest of the roll is still worth about 5 cents a coin.

Common mistakes

• Expecting a wheat cent. The 1963 has the Memorial on the back. Wheat stalks mean the coin is 1958 or earlier.
• Pricing brown coins from the red column. Most 1963s are worth about 10 cents uncirculated, not the red figures.
• Calling every doubled date a variety. Flat, shelf-like strike doubling is common and adds nothing.
• Treating the MS67 guide figures as sales. Sales at that grade are thin, so the high figures are unconfirmed.
• Cleaning the coin. It strips the original color that drives every red price; see should you clean old coins.
• Paying for an unconfirmed "1963 DDO". Check the FS number and get attribution before you pay a premium.

How WorthPic reads 1963 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 mint mark under the date, confirms the Memorial reverse, and judges wear on the cheekbone and the columns. It estimates color and checks the date of a Denver coin for hub doubling, separating it from flat machine doubling where the photo allows. It then gives an honest value range in US dollars with a most likely figure, explains what drives it, and says which close-up would settle a doubt. It cannot judge a red MS65 from a phone photo, and it cannot confirm FS-101 from a blurred date. It identifies and estimates. It does not authenticate, grade or appraise.

What to photograph

• The front and back straight on, in even daylight.
• The date and the mint mark under it, close up and sharp.
• LIBERTY and the date together, to show any doubling.
• Lincoln's cheek and jaw at an angle, to show wear.
• For a bright coin, one shot that shows the true color without glare.

When to get it looked at in person

A worn 1963 or 1963-D needs no expert. A coin shop can sort a roll of common cents in minutes. For a red coin that looks like MS65 or better, or a Denver coin with a date doubling that might be FS-101, show it to a variety specialist first, then send it to PCGS or NGC for attribution and grading. For the rest of a jar, start with what pennies are worth money, and for how doubling happens, read our guide to error coins worth money.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Lincoln cent: the composition history of the bronze cent, 95 percent copper at 3.11 grams, and the end of San Francisco cent coinage after 1955.
• PCGS CoinFacts: 1963 1C, RD and 1963-D 1C, RD: mintages, guide values by grade, populations and the MS66 to MS67+ auction records.
• CopperCoins: 1963 Lincoln cent guide: guide values by grade and the doubled die and repunched mint mark counts.
• CopperCoins: 1963-D doubled die obverse 1DO-001: the FS-101 designation, the die states and the guide values for each.
• Lincoln Cent Resource: doubled dies: its doubled die list, which includes the 1963-D DDO 1.