Change From 1960 Small Date To Large Date On The L

The first Lincoln cent for 1960 produced is referred to as the small date. It appears that the master hub had the date, LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST abraded off the hub and a new master die was made missing these design elements.

The master die was then engraved with the date, LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST. This in turn made the new master hub which made a new master die for the year.

In the later part of April or the beginning of May, the U.S. Mint introduced a new obverse for the 1960 Lincoln cent that incorporated some changes in the design elements.

The digits in the date were thinned and the 6 and 0 digit enlarged. The Mint stated that there was a reoccurring problem with the last two digits of the date chipping out.

The word LIBERTY seemed to revert to the style found on the 1959 Lincoln cent.

While the words IN GOD WE saw no changes, the word TRUST did have some minor changes made, most notable to the R in TRUST.

There has been some contention as to why the Mint made this change. At first, the director of the Mint denied that a change had taken place and only later, when evidence arose that conflicted with his statement, did the story change.

There maybe more to this story than we know. For an in depth look at what may have happened CLICK HERE