Coin tools
Mint marks: which letter, where, and what it changes
Choose a coin and a date to see which letter a Philadelphia coin carries that year and which mints have a production figure in the official tables.
Which mint mark can my coin have?
Philadelphia coins show
none
| Mints with a figure this year | P, D, S |
| Other mints show | their letter |
From the US Mint page on mint marks and the Bureau of the Mint tables.
A mint mark is the small letter that identifies the Mint facility that struck a coin. The Mint’s own page on mint marks lists them: P for Philadelphia, D for Denver, S for San Francisco and W for West Point today, with O for New Orleans and CC for Carson City on older coins. The letter matters because each mint has its own production figure, and the same date can be common from one mint and scarce from another. Philadelphia, the main mint, left most of its coins unmarked until it began adding a P to every denomination except the cent in 1980; the cent received a P only in 2017. Coins dated 1965 to 1967 carry no letter from any mint. Since 1968 the mark has been placed on the front of the coin. The tool above tells you what letter a Philadelphia coin of any year carries and which mints have a figure that year.
All coins of one year
Coins struck in 1964, all mints
13,260,282,213
| Cent (penny) | 6,451,597,262 · 4.4¢ |
| Nickel | 2,815,919,922 · 7.5¢ |
| Dime | 2,290,827,942 · $3.91 |
| Quarter | 1,268,476,875 · $9.76 |
| Half dollar | 433,460,212 · $19.53 |
| Dollar (none dated) | no figure · $0.11 |
Number struck · metal value of one coin. At silver $53.94 per troy oz, copper $6.61 per lb (last price read).
Mintages, metals and prices read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
The letters and the mints
| Letter | Mint | On circulating coins in our tables |
|---|---|---|
| none or P | Philadelphia | every year; P on most coins from 1980 |
| D | Denver | from 1906 on dimes, quarters and halves |
| S | San Francisco | to 1955, then from coins dated 1964 or 1965, and on proofs |
| O | New Orleans | silver dollars, 1879 to 1904 |
| CC | Carson City | 1870 to 1893 |
| W | West Point | quarters dated 2019 and later issues |
The New Orleans and Carson City rows reflect what this site’s tables hold, which is silver dollars for those two mints; both also struck smaller silver coins in the nineteenth century, outside the tables transcribed here. San Francisco disappears from the cent tables after 1955 and returns with coins dated 1964, which the book counts in a separate table of coins by date.
Where to look on the coin
Since 1968, the mark is on the obverse, the side with the portrait, usually near the date. Before that it moved from design to design: on the reverse of most silver coins, under the date on Lincoln cents, and above Monticello on the wartime nickels of 1942 to 1945, where a large P appeared for the first time. The Mint’s anatomy of a coin names each part of the coin if the terms are unfamiliar.
Use a magnifier and light from the side. A D and an S can look alike when worn, and the letter can be filled with grime. Never pick at it with a pin: a scratch is permanent.
Why the letter changes the count
Each mint had its own presses and its own orders, so the numbers differ widely. In 1931, cents were struck at 19,396,000 pieces in Philadelphia, 4,480,000 in Denver and only 866,000 in San Francisco. In 1893, silver dollars from Carson City numbered 677,000 and from San Francisco 100,000. The tool below lists every denomination of a given year with its total, as a first step before reading the per-mint figure.
All coins of one year
Coins struck in 1964, all mints
13,260,282,213
| Cent (penny) | 6,451,597,262 · 4.4¢ |
| Nickel | 2,815,919,922 · 7.5¢ |
| Dime | 2,290,827,942 · $3.91 |
| Quarter | 1,268,476,875 · $9.76 |
| Half dollar | 433,460,212 · $19.53 |
| Dollar (none dated) | no figure · $0.11 |
Number struck · metal value of one coin. At silver $53.94 per troy oz, copper $6.61 per lb (last price read).
For the per-mint figure of a single coin, the coin value lookup reads the line for that date and letter.
Years without any mint mark
Coins dated 1965 to 1967 carry no mint mark at all, as the Mint’s page on marks records, although Denver and San Francisco struck coins in those years. A 1966 quarter with no letter can therefore come from any mint, and the tables count each mint separately while the coins themselves look identical. Marks returned with the date 1968, moved to the obverse.
Two later exceptions are worth knowing. In 1975, San Francisco struck dimes for circulation without a letter, which the lookup notes. And cents dated 2017 carry a P, for the 225th anniversary of the Mint, as the Mint’s penny FAQs recall; the penny value page covers the other cent details.
A letter that should not exist for a date, such as a mint mark on a coin dated 1966, is a warning sign of an altered or counterfeit coin rather than a discovery.