The first Lincoln cent produced in 1960 is referred to as the “small date”. It appears that the date, LIBERTY, and IN GOD WE TRUST were ground off the master hub and a new master die was prepared that was missing these design elements.

The master die was then engraved with the date, LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST. This, in turn, was used to fabricate
a new master hub which was then employed in making 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 design for the 1960 Lincoln cent that incorporated some changes in the design elements. The digits of the date were thinned and numerals 6 and 0 were enlarged. The Mint stated that there was a recurring 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 notably in the R of TRUST.

At first, the director of the Mint denied that a change had taken place and only later, when evidence appeared that contradicted his statement, did the story change.  But the belated, official explanation for the design change has been disputed. There may be much more to this story than has been admitted. For an in depth look at what may have happened CLICK HERE

For some obscure reason, the date on the 1970-S Lincoln cent shows two different styles (see photos below). Labeled “large date” and “small date”, the differences chiefly affect numerals 9 and 7.  In the large date, the tip of the upper curl of the 9 points downward at an angle of 45°, while that of the small date points in a horizontal direction. Numeral 7 of the large date appears to be lower in relation to the other digits, while numeral 7 of the small date appears to be even with the other digits.

LARGE DATE                                                                                    SMALL DATE

Through the 1970s, a steadily rising demand for Lincoln cents meant that more working dies had to be produced. This meant that more working hubs had to be made from the same master die. This increased  use caused the bust
of Lincoln to expand on the master die, which in turn pushed the peripheral design elements towards the rim. In 1974, just about halfway through the production of the year’s supply of working hubs, the mint re-positioned the date, the motto “IN GOD WE TRUST” and LIBERTY away from the rim.  In the course of this redesign, the date was also slightly modified and was christened the “small date” variant.

The images below show the position of LIBERTY. Note the position of the L relative to the design rim in the “large date” and “small date” varieties. Also shown is the relative position of TRUST in the “large date” and “small date”.

The same gradual expansion of the master die that occurred  in 1974 occurred again in 1982. This prompted the mint to change the position of the peripheral design elements midway through the production cycle.  Also during this year, the 95% copper planchet was replaced with a planchet of copper-plated zinc. Between the Philadelphia and Denver Mints, these combined changes resulted in a total of seven different business strike cents.