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1922 Penny – Denver Coin With A Philly LookThe 1922 penny with no mint mark, also known as the 1922 Plain penny, was a Denver mint productNormally, a US coin with no mint mark is a coin made at the central mint in Philadelphia. All of the one cent coins of 1922 were Denver mint coins, most of which have a normal looking D mintmark. The ones without a mint mark, or a very weak mint mark, were produced from dies that were being used beyond the point at which they would normally have been retired. Why was Denver using worn out dies?Branch mints like Denver receive their working dies from the Philadelphia Mint, which retains the responsibility for making the dies from the original hub. In 1922 Denver was tasked to produce a bit more than 7 million pennies. This was rather a low mintage compared to other years during that era. For example, in 1920 Denver minted over 49 million pennies; in 1919 more than 57 million.However, at the Philadelphia Mint, where the branch mint dies were manufactured, a huge number of the new Peace type silver dollars had been ordered by the government. (Indeed, the 1922 Peace Dollar from Philadelphia is by far the most common of that series.) The die sinking department at Philadelphia was sinking under the workload of producing silver dollar dies, and had no more capacity for producing penny dies for Denver – not in 1922. So Denver had to make do. The 1922 D penny dies began to wear down. The D mintmark began to fade. Then, near the end of cent production for the year, one pair of dies clashed! What is meant by “Clashed Dies”?Die clashing occurs when the dies come together with no coin blank present to take the impression. So each die strikes the other. Although the dies are case hardened steel, coin presses exert a tremendous amount of pressure, even for a small coin like a penny. The result is that some of the design of each die is stamped into the face of the opposing die.A whole class of coin collecting revolves around coins produced from clashed dies, where bits of the design of the opposite side faintly show. Mintmasters despise clashed dies. They will destroy any coins produced from damaged dies, and withdraw from service dies so damaged. In 1922 every die was needed. So, Plan B was to remove the clashed die pair, then grind down the clashed design elements, and finally, polish the result to obliterate the offending impression. This remedy was pursued energetically with regard to the 1922 wheat penny near the end of production at Denver that year. Sadly, the “D” mint mark apparently disappeared from the die altogether. It is likely that only a few thousand of the 1922 penny were produced without the “D”. Warning!If you want to purchase a 1922 penny with no mintmark, be advised that many fakes have been produced. Your safes bet would be to purchase a coin certified by one of the major coin grading services, like PCGS (Professional Coin Grading Service) or NGC (Numismatic Guaranty Corporation).If you happen to have a coin of this type that has not been certified, it is strongly recommended that you do so. Your local coin dealer can assist you in this process. Charges are reasonable, and well worth the expense given the potential value of the 1922 plain penny.
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