Aside from the damage, the Lincoln penny that sold is one of the rarest in existence in the series.
This is because VDB initials are engraved on the reverse with an S letter mark on the obverse, which stands for its mint location of San Francisco.
The coin was minted in 1909, which is the first year the Lincoln penny was struck by the US Mint.
The initials came from the designer Victor David Brennan, which sparked controversy among newspaper reporters at the time.
They argued that the placement of the initials was “far from inconspicuous and that the initials amounted to free, illegal advertising for the designer,” Professional Coin Grading Services Ron Guth wrote.
“Instead of placing the initials elsewhere in new dies, mint employees simply removed them entirely from the coin, and a new round of cents were produced without the VDB.”
In addition to the 1909-S penny, there was another cent with the same date that featured the VDB initials.
This was the 1909 penny without a letter, which has a mintage at nearly 28million.
The 1909-S Lincoln cent, on the other hand, only has a mintage of 484,000 – which is the lowest in the series.
As far as how the damage goes, it’s unclear if that happened during the minting process or if it happened afterward.
Specifically, the damage can be found in the top left of the obverse and corners on the reverse.
Nevertheless, the 1909-S damaged VDB piece in the listing picked up a massive 82 bids, selling for a total of $915.
That would mean the penny is now worth more than 9.1million percent of its original denomination.
In other recent eBay listings, one VDB penny sold for more than $2,000, followed by another that sold for $1,314.
What other Lincoln pennies are valuable?
For more than a century, Lincoln has been featured on the penny – and luckily there are other pieces in the series that could be quite valuable.
One of them is the 1955 double die Lincoln cent, which is an error coin that features a duplicate of letters, numbers, or words.
When it comes to recent eBay auctions, one sold for $1,825, another for $1,801, and one for $1,552.
Another valuable Lincoln penny is the 1922 penny without a mintmark.
This is because not a single Lincoln penny was minted outside Denver that year, but there was “sloppiness in the production process,” Jamie Hernandez of Professional Coin Grading Service wrote.
Thus, this led to some pennies not featuring a mintmark.
In a recent online listing, a 1922 Lincoln penny without a mint mark sold for nearly $3,000.
If you believe you have a valuable coin, search the full name, select the “sold” listing and then toggle the search to “highest value.”
It will give you an idea of the amount of money that the coin is going for.
In other rare coin news, we’ve explained the Lincoln penny and how much it’s worth.
