What Is a Mint Mark?
A mint mark is a small letter on a coin that shows which U.S. Mint facility struck it. Four are in use today: P for Philadelphia, D for Denver, S for San Francisco and W for West Point. Four more (C, O, CC and an earlier D) are historic marks of mints that have closed. A coin with no letter usually came from Philadelphia, though not always.
Why U.S. Coins Carry a Mint Mark
Mint marks began as a quality control. When circulating coins were gold and silver, a commission tested the composition and quality of the coins from each facility, and the letter showed which one answered for a coin. The first mint marks appeared in 1838, when the Mint opened branches in Charlotte, Dahlonega and New Orleans. Philadelphia, as the original mint, went on striking coins with no letter at all.
That control function never went away. When the letters came back in 1968 after a three-year absence, the Mint's announcement said they matter to its own operation because they identify the issuing institution. Today federal law names four mints, one for each current letter.
The Eight U.S. Mint Marks and Their Dates
The years in this table are the U.S. Mint's own date ranges for each letter.
| Mint mark | Mint | Years | Worth knowing |
|---|
| P | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 1942 to present | Not continuous. No P on coins dated 1946 to 1978 |
| D | Denver, Colorado | 1906 to present | First coins struck in February 1906 |
| S | San Francisco, California | 1854 to present | On proof coins since 1968 |
| W | West Point, New York | 1984 to present | First circulating coins were 2019 quarters |
| C | Charlotte, North Carolina | 1838 to 1861 | Gold coins only |
| D | Dahlonega, Georgia | 1838 to 1861 | Gold coins only |
| O | New Orleans, Louisiana | 1838 to 1861 and 1879 to 1909 | Silver and some gold |
| CC | Carson City, Nevada | 1870 to 1893 | Gold and silver |
One letter, D, has stood for two mints that never ran at the same time. A D on a gold coin dated 1838 to 1861 is Dahlonega, Georgia, which struck only small amounts of gold. On anything dated 1906 or later it's Denver, where the first coins were struck that February. The date identifies the mint as much as the letter does.
Charlotte, Dahlonega and New Orleans all closed when the Civil War began in 1861, and only New Orleans reopened, from 1879 to 1909. Carson City's CC, the only two-letter mark on the Mint's list, belongs to a mint set up to coin silver from Nevada's Comstock Lode.
San Francisco's S is the oldest mint mark still in use. S coins were struck for circulation from 1854 to 1955, with short runs afterward: nickels from 1968 to 1970, cents from 1968 to 1974 and dollars from 1979 to 1981. In 1968 proof production moved from Philadelphia to San Francisco, and proof coins, the specially struck collector versions, gained the S. It was the first mint mark ever to appear on a U.S. proof coin.
West Point's W is older than its standing as a mint. The letter first appeared in 1984 on the $10 gold coin for the Los Angeles Olympics, four years before West Point became an official U.S. Mint on March 31, 1988.
Philadelphia and the On-and-Off P
The Mint lists the P as 1942 to present, and that hides a long gap. Philadelphia coins had no mint mark until 1942, when nickel was removed from the five-cent coin for the war and a P appeared on Philadelphia coins for the first time. On those war nickels, the mint mark also moved from the right of Monticello to above the dome, to flag the changed alloy. A large letter above the dome on a nickel dated 1942 to 1945 tells you the composition as well as the mint.
When the regular alloy returned after the war, the P disappeared again. It came back in 1979 on the Susan B. Anthony dollar, and from 1980 it has been on every Philadelphia denomination except the cent. Only the cent dated 2017 breaks that rule. It carried a P for the Mint's 225th anniversary.
What No Mint Mark Means
A blank where the letter should be is information too, and it means one of five things depending on the coin and its date.
Most often it means Philadelphia. By the Mint's rule of thumb, a circulating coin with no mint mark came from Philadelphia, and that covers every Philadelphia coin dated before 1942 and most dated before 1980.
On coins dated 1965, 1966 or 1967, it means nothing. No circulating coin of those years has a mint mark from any mint. Congress barred the letters in the Coinage Act of 1965, during a coin shortage, to discourage collecting, and repealed the ban in 1967. You can't trace a 1966 quarter to a mint.
On some later coins, the blank hides another mint. San Francisco struck unmarked cents for circulation in the 1970s and 1980s, and West Point struck cents from 1973 to 1986, none with a W. Neither can be told from a Philadelphia cent.
Once, it was a mistake. In 1982, thousands of Philadelphia dimes left the Mint without the P the denomination had carried since 1980. PCGS calls it the first time a coin struck for circulation was released without its intended mint mark.
On a bullion coin, it's by design. Bullion American Silver Eagles have no mint mark, though NGC notes they're normally struck at West Point and in some years at San Francisco. The current proof version is different: it's struck at West Point and carries a W.
Where to Find the Mint Mark on U.S. Coins
Which side to check depends on the date. When mint marks returned in 1968, the Mint put them all on the obverse, the front, for uniformity. Before the break they had generally been on the reverse. That's the case for every older silver coin in this table, so turn one over before you decide it has no letter. The Lincoln cent is the exception: its D or S has sat beneath the date on the front since 1909.
| Coin | Dates | Where the mint mark is |
|---|
| Cent, nickel, dime and quarter | 1968 to date | Front, to the right of the portrait |
| Kennedy half dollar | 1968 to date | Front, centered under the portrait |
| Lincoln cent | 1909 to 1964 | Front, beneath the date |
| Washington quarter, silver | 1932 to 1964 | Back, under the eagle |
| Mercury dime | 1916 to 1945 | Back, lower left, just right of the E in ONE |
| Jefferson nickel, wartime alloy | 1942 to 1945 | Back, above the dome of Monticello |
| Jefferson nickel, regular alloy | Through 1964 | Back, to the right of Monticello |
| Morgan dollar | 1878 to 1904 and 1921 | Back, just beneath the ribbon bow of the wreath |
| Any circulating coin | 1965 to 1967 | None |
| American Silver Eagle, bullion | All dates | None |
On Morgan silver dollars, every mint except Philadelphia placed its letter beneath the bow: New Orleans, San Francisco, Denver and Carson City. On Mercury dimes, only a D or an S appears.
Letters and Symbols That Aren't Mint Marks
Not every small letter on a coin is a mint mark. People often spot a W on the front of a Mercury dime, behind Liberty's neck. It's the monogram of designer Adolph A. Weinman, an A and a W combined. It's on every Mercury dime, and it can't be a mint mark: the series ended in 1945, and no U.S. coin carried a W mint mark until 1984. A privy mark is something else again. The Mint describes it as a symbol that communicates information about a coin's production, and today privy marks mostly commemorate events.
How to Read a Mint Mark in a Listing or on a Grading Label
Collectors write the date, a hyphen and then the mint mark. In the American Numismatic Association's example, a 1989 has no mint mark and a 1989-D was struck at Denver. A letter in parentheses means something different. When NGC can prove from a sealed Mint box where a bullion Silver Eagle was struck, it prints the letter in parentheses, as in 2017(S), to show that the letter isn't on the coin.
That format matters because rarity belongs to a date and a mint together, never to a letter alone. In 1916, Philadelphia struck more than 20 million Mercury dimes and San Francisco more than 10 million, but Denver struck only 264,000. The 1916 and the 1916-S are common. The 1916-D is scarce, and one small D is the whole difference.
How Mint Marks Were Made and How Added Ones Are Caught
Historically, the dies for every branch mint were made in Philadelphia, and the mint mark was punched into each die by hand. The same letter punch served for years. So the style of a mint mark holds steady across a period while its exact position wanders from die to die, and a letter that sits a little high or tilted is normal.
Position therefore proves little when a scarce date and mint is at stake. PCGS calls an S attached to a Philadelphia coin the most commonly encountered Morgan dollar counterfeit, and warns that placement can't guarantee authenticity because the letters were hand punched. Added mint marks are usually caught three other ways: the surface around the letter is no longer original, a tiny seam shows where the letter meets the field, or the style of the letter is wrong for the date.
You can make the same three checks with a magnifier. A scale won't help, because the coin under the added letter is a genuine Philadelphia piece of the right weight. NGC won't encapsulate a coin with an altered date or mint mark, so a key date in an NGC holder has already cleared that test.
Mint-Marked Coins in Our Catalog
A mint mark only tells you something if the coin is genuine. We verify every item with modern testing equipment and numismatic expertise, and our authenticity guarantee covers everything we sell. We're an authorized dealer for PCGS and NGC, and coins certified by both services are listed among our graded coins.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a mint mark on a penny?
On many of them, yes. Denver cents carry a D, and San Francisco's last S cents for circulation are dated 1968 to 1974. Philadelphia cents have no mint mark, apart from those dated 2017. On a Lincoln cent the letter is on the front, beneath the date, which puts it to the right of the portrait.
Where is the mint mark on a 1942 quarter?
It's on the back, under the eagle, where PCGS places the mint mark on every Washington quarter dated 1932 to 1964. A D there means Denver and an S means San Francisco. If there's nothing under the eagle, the quarter is a Philadelphia coin, because Philadelphia quarters had no mint mark from 1932 through 1979.
Where is the mint mark located on the Indian Head penny?
Most Indian Head cents don't have one, because branch mints weren't allowed to strike cents until 1906. Only the 1908-S and the 1909-S carry a mint mark, an S on the reverse, and PCGS gives their mintages as 1,115,000 and 309,000. Altered coins are made by adding an S to a Philadelphia cent. Both genuine issues share one S punch, so the letter should match reference photos.
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