PCGS No: 2974

Mintage:
Circulation strikes: 4,235,098,000
Proofs: 0

Designer: Obverse by Victor David Brenner; reverse by Frank Gasparro

Diameter: 19 millimeters

Metal content:
Copper - 95%
Tin and Zinc - 5%

Weight: 48 grains (3.11 grams)

Edge: Plain

Mintmark: "D" (for Denver, Colorado) below the date   

Images courtesy of

Notes:
According to Michael P. Lantz of Lakewood, Colorado, a former employee at the Denver Mint, approximately ten 1974-D One Cent pieces were made in Aluminum: "I personally didn't make any of the Denver aluminum cents, I was on the graveyard shift when they were stamped.  A friend of mine, Ernie Martinez, die setter and later general foreman, stamped the aluminum cents on one of the Denver Mint's standard presses.  When I talked to him last Sunday he told me that he stamped around 10 of them.  One thing he recalled about them was that they 'finned' badly.  After stamping the blanks he returned the finished aluminum cents to Harry Bobay, general foreman, who took them to the coining division office where they were shipped back to Mint headquarters in Washington, D.C.  From there, who knows what happened to them."

The finest Uncirculated Red example graded by PCGS is a single MS-68RD.

Sources and/or recommended reading:
Numismatic News, March 20, 2001, p. 6

"The PCGS Population Report, October 2003" by The Professional Coin Grading Service