How to Identify a Coin From a Photo: Date and Mint Mark

To identify a coin from a photo, read it in this order: the country and denomination, the type (the design), the date, the mint mark, and then any named variety. For a coin in a PCGS or NGC holder, read the label instead: it prints the date, mint mark, denomination, grade, and a certificate number you can look up on the grading service's site.

The order matters because each step narrows the next one. Once you know a coin is a Morgan dollar, you know the date is on the obverse, the mint mark is on the reverse below the wreath, and the only mint marks it can have are CC, O, S, and D.

Take a photo you can read

Most failed identifications are bad photos.

• Fill the frame with the coin. A coin that takes up a tenth of the photo has a mint mark a few pixels wide.
• Light from the side. A lamp at about 45 degrees throws a shadow off the raised letters and digits. Flat light from straight above washes them out.
• Photograph a slab straight on, without flash. Flash on the plastic hides the label. Tilt the slab a little if the lamp reflects off it.
• Take the side with the mint mark. On many US coins the mint mark is on the reverse. If you do not know the type yet, take both sides.

Step 1: Country and denomination

US coins carry UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and the denomination in words: ONE CENT, FIVE CENTS, ONE DIME, QUARTER DOLLAR, HALF DOLLAR, ONE DOLLAR. Dimes say ONE DIME, not ten cents. Older gold coins can abbreviate it, such as TWENTY D. on a Liberty Head double eagle.

World coins show the country's name, sometimes in its own language or in Latin. HELVETIA, for example, is Switzerland.

Step 2: The type

The type is the design. Each design was struck for a known span of years, so the type also limits the date.

Type	Years	How to tell it
Indian Head cent	1859–1909	Liberty in a feather headdress
Lincoln cent, wheat reverse	1909–1958	Two wheat ears on the reverse
Buffalo nickel	1913–1938	Native American head; bison on the reverse
Jefferson nickel	1938 to date	Jefferson; Monticello on the reverse
Mercury dime	1916–1945	Liberty in a winged cap; fasces on the reverse
Roosevelt dime	1946 to date	Roosevelt; torch on the reverse
Standing Liberty quarter	1916–1930	Liberty standing in a gateway
Walking Liberty half	1916–1947	Liberty walking toward the sun
Franklin half	1948–1963	Franklin; Liberty Bell on the reverse
Morgan dollar	1878–1904, 1921	Liberty head facing left; eagle in a wreath
Peace dollar	1921–1935	Liberty with a radiant crown; eagle on a rock with PEACE
Saint-Gaudens double eagle	1907–1933	Liberty striding forward; flying eagle on the reverse

The US Mint has struck Morgan and Peace dollars again since 2021. Those modern coins are dated 2021 or later, so the date tells them apart from the old series.

Step 3: The date

The date is usually on the obverse, below the portrait. Read every digit. A 3 and an 8 look alike on a worn coin, and so do a 1 and a 7.

Some types lose their dates first:

• Buffalo nickels have the date on a raised shelf below the head. It wears flat before the rest of the coin, and many circulated Buffalos have no date left. These are sold as "dateless".
• Standing Liberty quarters struck through 1924 have a raised date that wears off. From 1925 the date is recessed, and it lasts.

An overdate is a date struck over another date, such as the 1942/1 Mercury dime or the 1918/7-D Buffalo nickel. On a photo, look for the outline of a second digit inside or behind the last one.

Step 4: The mint mark

The mint mark is a letter for the mint that struck the coin. The common ones are:

• P Philadelphia
• D Denver (and Dahlonega on gold before 1862)
• S San Francisco
• O New Orleans
• CC Carson City
• W West Point

Philadelphia coins before 1980 mostly have no mint mark. The cent still has none, except in 2017.

Where to look on common US series:

Series	Where the mint mark is
Lincoln cent	Obverse, below the date
Indian Head cent (1908 and 1909 S)	Reverse, below the wreath
Buffalo nickel	Reverse, below FIVE CENTS
Jefferson nickel, to 1964	Reverse, right of Monticello
Jefferson nickel, 1942–1945 silver	Reverse, large letter above Monticello, P included
Jefferson nickel, from 1968	Obverse, near the date
Mercury dime	Reverse, left of the fasces
Roosevelt dime, to 1964	Reverse, left of the torch
Roosevelt dime, from 1968	Obverse, above the date
Washington quarter, to 1964	Reverse, below the wreath
Washington quarter, from 1968	Obverse, behind the head
Walking Liberty half, from 1918	Reverse, lower left
Franklin half	Reverse, above the bell
Kennedy half, 1964	Reverse, left of the eagle's claw
Kennedy half, from 1968	Obverse, below the bust
Morgan dollar	Reverse, below the wreath
Peace dollar	Reverse, lower left, near the tip of the eagle's wing
Saint-Gaudens double eagle	Obverse, above the date

Walking Liberty halves of 1917 come both ways: some have the mint mark on the obverse below IN GOD WE TRUST, and some on the reverse. The two are priced differently, so read which side it is on.

A mint mark you cannot see is not the same as no mint mark. A worn or toned coin can hide a small S. Before you call a coin a Philadelphia coin, look at a close-up of the place the mint mark would be. Look as hard at a mint mark that does not fit: a D on a 1914 cent can be added to a 1914 Philadelphia cent, and the 1914-D is worth far more.

Step 5: Named varieties

A variety is a known difference in the die. Most of them need a close look, and some need the coin in hand. Ones you can often see in a good photo:

• 1878 Morgan, 8 or 7 tail feathers. Count the tail feathers on the eagle. The first 1878 dies had 8.
• 1955 doubled die obverse cent. The date and LIBERTY are doubled so strongly you can see it without a loupe.
• 1937-D three-legged Buffalo. The bison's front right leg is missing.
• 1922 cent with no D. Struck in Denver from a worn die, with no mint mark.
• 1909-S VDB cent. The designer's initials V.D.B. on the reverse at the bottom, with an S below the date.

Morgan dollar varieties are listed by VAM number. Most VAMs need high magnification, so treat a VAM read from a phone photo as a possibility to check.

Read the metal, not only the design

Some coins of the same design were struck in different metals:

• Dimes, quarters, and halves dated 1965 or later are copper-nickel clad, with a copper stripe on the edge. Kennedy halves from 1965 to 1970 are 40% silver.
• Cents of 1943 are zinc-coated steel, and they stick to a magnet. A copper 1943 cent is a famous rarity, and many are altered or plated.
• 1982 cents come in copper (3.11 grams) and copper-plated zinc (2.5 grams). The photo does not tell them apart. A scale does.

How to read a PCGS or NGC slab label

A slab label tells you more than the coin does, because a grader has already identified it.

PCGS

The text side of a PCGS label gives the date, mint mark, and denomination in one line, such as 1916-D 10C, any variety, and the grade, such as MS64FB. Near the bottom is a line in the form coin number.grade/certificate number. The number before the period is the PCGS coin number for that date, mint, and variety. The digits after the slash are the certificate number, which is the number you look up.

NGC

An NGC label gives the date, mint mark, and denomination, such as 1881 S $1, any variety, the grade, such as MS 64, and a certificate number in the form of seven digits, a dash, and three digits.

Grades and designations

• Prefixes: MS (mint state), PR or PF (proof), SP (specimen), AU, XF, VF, F, VG, G, AG.
• Copper color: RD (red), RB (red-brown), BN (brown).
• Proof contrast: CAM and DCAM at PCGS, Cameo and Ultra Cameo at NGC.
• Strike: FB (full bands) on Mercury dimes, FBL (full bell lines) on Franklin halves, FH (full head) on Standing Liberty quarters, FS (full steps) on Jefferson nickels.
• Details grades mean the coin has a problem, such as cleaning or damage. PCGS labels these Genuine with a details description. NGC labels them Details with the reason.

A green CAC sticker on the holder means CAC reviewed the coin and found it solid for the grade. A gold sticker means CAC found it better than the grade. CAC is a separate company from PCGS and NGC.

Check the certificate

Look up the certificate number on the PCGS or NGC site and compare the record with the coin. Check the date, mint mark, and grade. If the record has photos, compare the toning and marks. Counterfeit holders with real certificate numbers exist, so a matching record does not prove the coin is real.

Worked examples

A worn silver dollar

The obverse shows Liberty facing left with E PLURIBUS UNUM above her. The reverse shows an eagle inside a wreath. That is a Morgan dollar. The date reads 1921. Below the wreath on the reverse is a D. The coin is a 1921-D Morgan dollar. 1921 is the only year Denver struck Morgans, so a D on any other date is wrong.

A wheat cent from a coffee can

Lincoln on the obverse, two wheat ears on the reverse, so it is a wheat cent from 1909 to 1958. The date reads 1909, with an S below it. On the reverse, at the bottom between the wheat ears, are the letters V.D.B. The coin is a 1909-S VDB Lincoln cent, the key to the series. Check it for an added S and for altered initials before you price it.

A slab

The PCGS label reads 1916-D 10C, MS64FB. That is a 1916-D Mercury dime, graded Mint State 64, with full bands on the fasces. The 1916-D is the key date of the Mercury series, so look up the certificate and check the coin against the record before you take it in.

How CoinManagerPro identifies a coin from a photo

In CoinManagerPro, coin identification is in Add coin. The first photo you add fills in the title, year, mint mark, denomination, coin type, and variety. A title you already typed stays.

If the photo shows a slab barcode, CoinManagerPro reads the barcode and looks up the cert, and no AI call is made. If there is no barcode, the AI reads the coin or the slab label. For a slab, it also reads the grading service, grade, designation, and certificate number. For a PCGS or NGC slab, CoinManagerPro then looks up the certificate to check the record.

Each reading has a confidence score. When the confidence is too low, the form stays empty for you to fill in, and nothing saves until you save the coin. Each photo read costs 5 credits. A barcode read and a cert lookup cost nothing.

For a raw coin, the photo reading does not give a grade. On the coin page, Assess grade gives a grade opinion from the coin's photos for 16 credits. To read many coins at once, use photo intake, which reads one coin per photo, obverse and reverse pairs, or tray photos of several coins. In photo intake, when the first reading of a raw coin has no year or is not sure of the mint mark, CoinManagerPro reads the year and mint mark again from full-resolution close-ups of the photo.