Denver struck fifteen million cents in 1913 and twenty-two million in 1915. In between it struck 1,193,000, and almost nobody noticed for a decade. There was no controversy to advertise the coin, no Depression-era hobby pulling rolls aside, and so the 1914-D did what cents did: it went to work and wore out. By the time collectors realized what the figure meant, the uncirculated survivors were already scarce, and the coin had become the series' purest example of a key made by neglect.
Its mirror is the 1931-S, a smaller mintage that is a far cheaper coin, because by 1931 the hobby was watching and saved it on sight. The pair are the register's cleanest controlled experiment: the number on this page matters, but what the public did in the first year matters more.
The classic 1914-D fraud does not add a mintmark, it subtracts a digit: a common 1944-D with the first 4 shaved becomes a 1914-D to a careless eye. The altered coin keeps 1944's digit spacing, which is wider than 1914's, and the shaved area disturbs the field.
| Issue | Mint | Mintage |
|---|---|---|
| 1914 Lincoln Wheat Cent | Philadelphia | 75,238,432 |
| 1914-S Lincoln Wheat Cent | San Francisco | 4,137,000 |
| 1914-D Lincoln Wheat Cent | Denver | 1,193,000 |
Mintage figures: United States Mint (Annual Report of the Director of the Mint), Royal Canadian Mint records, and — for the 1935 banknote issue — Bank of Canada printage records as published in the Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian Government Paper Money, cross-checked across independent published references. Specifications: United States Mint coin specifications.