Are 1974-S Cents hard to find?

[henrysmedford]

I have been helping my boys hand sort to sell there finds and we have look at $300+ and found only four 1974-S. It is a five hour drive to SF so it is not were we live.

[Know Common Cents]

Been through a lot of bags and can tell you that the 1968-74S cents make an infrequent appearance. Very unlikely that anyone would pay a premium for quantity of these later date S-mint memorials, however. Somewhat desirable in BU condition and they most usually sell for a larger premium over their more common counterparts. Fun to have, but not fun to pay more than face for.

[Rodebaugh]

I keep/roll whatever S mints I find. The 1974-S is By Far the most common issue I come across. (I have 3-5 rolls of them collected) I do hoowever find very few 73-s.

They must have sent all the 74-s to the east coast.

[henrysmedford]

After sorting 1k $ FV we just filled a roll of 50 cents.

[barrytrot]

Back in the day when I was active the "S" mint memorials definitely had a premium over the "normals". I'm sure they still would. So, if you are hand sorting definitely keep them separate.

[henrysmedford]

Today Franklin got 13 1974-S out of $25.
He also got in the same lot--
(7) 68-S
(11) 69-S
(21) 70-S
(17) 71-S
(16) 72-S
(20) 73-S

[Know Common Cents]

At least with the 1970 S there's a chance of finding a small date. Takes some basic training of the eye to catch those in a rapid sort, but those are definitely worth hanging on to. Just plain old nice to see S-mint cents in change from time to time. My favorites are the 1969 S cents. From the dullness of the 1968 S cents to the die re-engraving for 1969, there's a 100% difference in the sharpness of the coin.

Good luck pulling them out of circulation. Get 'em while you can, I'd say.

[Morsecode]

I've been buying $50 fv bags from pennypicker in CA, and I get somewhere around 250 S cents from each shipment (oops, there goes my secret source

I found less than 50 sorting 50+ bank bricks here in CT.

Yes, I put them aside in their own bag(s). The S mint mystique runs deep on the east coast; a carryover from the earliest days of coin collecting. They will probably never have much upside, but since I'm hand sorting anyway...

[henrysmedford]

I've been buying $50 fv bags from pennypicker in CA, and I get somewhere around 250 S cents from each shipment (oops, there goes my secret source

I found less than 50 sorting 50+ bank bricks here in CT.

Yes, I put them aside in their own bag(s). The S mint mystique runs deep on the east coast; a carryover from the earliest days of coin collecting. They will probably never have much upside, but since I'm hand sorting anyway...

There are 7 s mints 68,69,70,71,72,73,74. And there is 50 types of Memorials. If you count 1982 it would 52. So 14 percent should be S mints. That is about $14 per $100. And you are getting $2.50 were odds should be more like $7.00.
I just added it up and there was only 3.1 Billion s mints minted. 1974 p there was 4.2 Billion so my stated percent does not work.

[Morsecode]

Ah, but you are forgetting that for the majority of those 7 years San Francisco produced only 10% of the total coins made in Denver & Philadelphia.

There were more cents minted in Denver in 1974 alone than the combined 7 years total for San Fran.

Or, looking at the big picture, from 1959 thru 1981 something like 145 billion cents produced at all facilities, of which only 3 billion were S mint - closer to 2%

2% x 5000 bag = 100 coins. So 250 is quite high I think.

[uthminsta]

Consider this. There were about 27 times as many cents minted from 2000-2010 (80 billion) as were minted in San Fran from 1968-1974 (3 billion). So that doesn't make them rare, it just makes them comparatively rare. Look at the bigger picture - 460 billion Lincoln cents from 1909-2010 - and that explains why they aren't very often seen.

[HPMBTT]

Today Franklin got 13 1974-S out of $25.
He also got in the same lot--
(7) 68-S
(11) 69-S
(21) 70-S
(17) 71-S
(16) 72-S
(20) 73-S

Now that's a nice little stash right there.

I keep only the good clean S-mint Memorials. I used to collect all of them regardless of condition, but most look like crap, so I kept only the clean ones. There is a market for them, although I'm inclined to think that people would buy them a lot quicker if they are clean with good patina and not just dirty/nasty like most of them.

[HPMBTT]

I'm in the bay area (CA) now, so here, the chances of finding one is about 5-7%, I would say. On the east coast, it's a LOT less (maybe 1%). They just don't make it out to the east coast that often for some reason.

[PreservingThePast]

Today Franklin got 13 1974-S out of $25.
He also got in the same lot--
(7) 68-S
(11) 69-S
(21) 70-S
(17) 71-S
(16) 72-S
(20) 73-S

Now that is awesome!!! It would definitely make me extremely happy if I were to come across results like that in my sorting.

Way to go, Franklin!!!

Enjoy your coin searches, everyone.

[PreservingThePast]

I've been buying $50 fv bags from pennypicker in CA, and I get somewhere around 250 S cents from each shipment (oops, there goes my secret source

I found less than 50 sorting 50+ bank bricks here in CT.

Yes, I put them aside in their own bag(s). The S mint mystique runs deep on the east coast; a carryover from the earliest days of coin collecting. They will probably never have much upside, but since I'm hand sorting anyway...

Yes it does. I still get excited when I find a rare S mint mark here in Central Florida. I do have a jar for the S mint mark pennies and a separate jar for the 1970 S hoping some day that someone with better eyes than mine can look through them for the allusive small date.

Enjoy your coin searches, everyone.

[shinnosuke]

I just have one question about the picture in the first post in this thread. How often do your sons drop a penny in that paper shredder?

[TheJonasCollegeFund]

I find mostly 1970S and the 1974S here in boxes in the Chicago area. I usually get 15 to 20 1974S per $100 searched. The harder ones are the 1972$,1973S, and the hardest, the 1971S.

[John Reich]

I can't locate a source by doing a search on the internet, but I do remember reading back in 1974 that the treasury department took the 1974-S cents and mixed them in with Philly and Denver coins and distributed them all over the country. The purpose was to discourage the hoarding of bags and rolls of 74-S cents. Collectors at the time did notice the low mintages and were holding on to the S mint memorial cents. I think that's why the 74-S is harder to find on the west coast, but more common in the Midwest and east coasts.

Here in PA, the 74-S is the most common, followed by the 70-S. I average one S mint per 250 coins searched.