2010-D Abraham Lincoln

Denver struck 48,020,000 Abraham Lincoln dollars in 2010, the highest Denver figure of the year and the standout total across the four 2010 designs (Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln). The Lincoln issue closed the calendar year on November 18, 2010, and the elevated mintage at both mints reflects what United States Mint planners anticipated and bag-and-roll buyers confirmed: a 16th-president design with the most recognizable name on any modern American coin pulls demand the other 2010 issues simply do not. The coin shares calendar year 2010 with the four Lincoln Bicentennial cent reverses (Birth Cabin, Indiana Childhood, Illinois Statehood, Capitol), giving Lincoln-themed collectors an unusually full year of fresh material. Don Everhart sculpted the obverse portrait and the Statue of Liberty reverse used on every business-strike Presidential Dollar.

Plain-edge errors, where a finished planchet bypassed the third-strike edge-lettering press, surface on 2010 dollars at far lower rates than on the 2007 Washington issue that triggered the original "Godless dollar" coverage, but they exist and command three- and four-figure premiums when authenticated by PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, or NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company. Doubled edge lettering also appears, as does the occasional weak-strike example where Lincoln's beard and the upper hair lose definition. MS66 and MS67 examples with full sharpness on those high points are scarcer than the population reports suggest because most graded coins were submitted from original Mint-wrapped rolls and bags, where bag-handling marks dominate. A reader new to the hobby should look at the high points of the portrait first; that is where the strike judgment lives.

The Denver Lincoln is a common date acquired most efficiently in original Mint-wrapped rolls and bags, where high-grade examples can be cherry-picked at small premiums over face value. Slabbed MS67 coins remain inexpensive enough that buying one outright often costs less than searching multiple rolls. For the program's wider context, including the December 2011 transition to collector-only distribution that ended the circulation run, see the Presidential Dollar series history.