Very quietly, the Lincoln Memorial Cent, first minted in 1959 and largely ignored by contemporary collectors, is reaching its 50th year, a major milestone for any U.S. Coin type. Although long ignored, interest in this series is on the increase. For the most part, collectors of this series should focus on coins that grade no less than MS65. For the later years (after 1980), MS66 is generally the minimal desired grade, with some years still reasonable in MS67. Collectors should generally stick with full red coins. Advanced collectors may find it challenging to collect examples with beautiful multi-colored Red-Brown toning. Any Memorial Cent, to be considered worthy of a collection, must demonstrate a full strike and full original luster that has a minimum of bagmarks or small ticks and is relatively carbon spot free. Subliminal or micro-spots are almost unavoidable. In other words, a coin with potential to grade MS65 or higher. So many Memorial's exist that anything in grades lower than MS65 (apart from the super rarities in the series) that such coins should be considered for use only as temporary hole fillers. The grading services differ slightly in what each considers sufficient for MS65, MS66, and MS67 and higher. PCGS is the most rigorous, and its graded coins in these grades almost always bring higher prices than the other grading services. PCGS will generally not grade a Memorial Cent with any tick visible to the naked eye higher than MS65. Another critical point to PCGS is strike quality. A worn obv. die that leaves Lincoln's bust without as much highpoint hair and cheek detail will not grade higher than MS65. And, special attention should be paid to the steps of the Memorial on the rev. All the steps should be visible, with no traces of erosion at the lower center of the steps. Such wear will keep PCGS from grading such a coin higher than MS65. Trivial carbon spots are less serious to PCGS than ticks, and will not absolutely prevent an MS66 or MS67 grade if the coin otherwise qualifies by their standards. NGC is slightly more liberal than PCGS when it comes to ticks and trivial wear erosion on the Memorial steps. Otherwise it is about the same. One cannot predict how either NGC or PCGS will react to satiny surfaces vs. flashy surfaces. One would predict PCGS would prefer flashy and NGC satiny. However, in my test submission of high grade Memorials of the same dates, the two services were almost in lockstep how they graded the coins, and PCGS would sometimes prefer the satiny luster and NGC the frosty luster. So the luster characteristics are not predictive. But in any case, full luster is essential. I will discuss the key and rare dates next.