Expert: Neil S Berman - 10/9/2008

Question
QUESTION: I have a box full of wheat pennies I came across a wheat penny in very good shape I looked at the date imprinted and there is NO 4th digit. Not even a trace of a number that could have been worn off or rubbed off?? It says 194 thats it how much could this potentially be worth to a collector?

ANSWER: Not likely. Sorry.

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QUESTION: Not likely? It is likely because it is sitting in my hand!! I will find someone who has the ability to give me some more of an educated answer. I read all about these "fake" pennies I have very little interest in claiming to have a "fraudulant" penny. This penny has NO 4th digit.

Answer
The cent was struck on a machine at the mint. The machine is greased regularly, with a heavy grease like on a car axle, as part of preventive maintance. Most of the time, 99% of the time, when parts of the design, date or legends on a coin are missing it indicates that grease got onto the die, filled in the digit in question,in your case the 4, leaving a missing number or letter. With the exception of the famous 1922-D cent with "no D", the D was filled with grease on the die, I can not think of any similar coin that is worth more than a couple of dollars, if you can find a collector to buy it. You can image that with billions of coins manufactured by this method, there are tens of thousands of coins that have parts of the design missing.The other 1% are coins that have been altered outside of the mint, for example, removing the D on a 1922-D to "create' a rarity, but in your case what you have is not rare and so likely it is a mint error, called a "grease filled die". I trust that this humble numismatist has provided you with an explanation that suits you and apologized for having offended you with my original answer, which may have been overly brief but correct. Enjoy your mint error.