Rare Penny Sells For $1.7 Million

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Sep 23rd 2010 at 6:01PM

When is a penny worth $1.7 million? The cent shown at right is no average coin, it's a one-of-a-kind Lincoln cent, mistakenly struck in 1943 at the Denver Mint in bronze rather than the zinc-coated steel used that year to conserve copper for World War II. It has been sold by Legend Numismatics of Lincroft, New Jersey for $1.7 million to an unnamed Southwestern business executive. The coin's anonymous former owner made arrangements for the entire sale proceeds to go to a charitable organization.

"This is the world's most valuable penny. It's the only known example of a 1943-dated Lincoln cent incorrectly struck in a copper alloy at the Denver Mint. Zinc-coated steel was being used for pennies in 1943 to conserve copper for other uses during World War II, and this one was mistakenly struck on a bronze coin disc left over from 1942. It took four years of aggressive negotiations with the coin's owner until he agreed to sell it," said rare coin dealer Laura Sperber, President of Legend Numismatics of Lincroft, New Jersey who obtained the unique penny for the unnamed collector.

The new owner has been a coin collector since he was a teenager. When he was a kid he thought he had found a 1943 copper penny in circulation but it was not authentic. He is "the only person to ever assemble a complete set of genuine 1943 bronze cents, one each from the Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco Mints, and he plans to display them," said Sperber.

Most 1943 pennies are steel-gray in color and not worth much more than face value but less than 20 pennies were accidentally struck in bronze that year at the Philadelphia and San Francisco Mints, and this is the only known example from the Denver Mint according to Don Willis, President of Professional Coin Grading Service of Santa Ana, California, the rare coin certification company whose experts authenticated the unique 1943 Denver bronze cent.

The anonymous penny-mad collector also paid $250,000 for a 1944-dated Philadelphia Mint cent mistakenly struck on a zinc-coated steel coin blank intended only for 1943 pennies, and paid $50,000 for an experimental 1942 cent composed mostly of tin. The collector's coins will be publicly displayed at a major rare coin convention in Tampa, Florida, January 6 - 8, 2011.

Tags: coin collecting, coins, numismatics, rare coin, rare penny

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

jhnatsgc Sep 23rd 2010 10:30AM

What an idiot! Take that penny to a store and all it is worth is 1 cent! I'm sorry, no penny is worth more than 1 cent.

mike hylton Sep 23rd 2010 11:06AM

more money envy,, why do people without money hate people with it so much,,? heck i have collectiables of all types, i payed sometimes 1000 times what they originally cost, am i stupid? i think not, they appreciate in value faster than investments , and there are always other people with money to spend that will buy them,,, you are the stupid one, keep making your half percent interest in a savings acct. or maybe 7percent in financials, i'll take my 20-22% profit in so called stupid collectiables

Trude Sep 23rd 2010 10:48AM

I wonder if that penny ever passed through my fingers........YOMMA HOMMA!

Tony Sep 26th 2010 10:54PM

your hands? doubtful, since other news accounts say this blank was made on purpose BY mint personnel and taken home and kept by them for 40 years....
IMHO its a stolen item from the mint then, and it should have been remanded to them if the story is true.
If it was created by someone on purpose to be unique, and then spirited away, its cheating!!!

wcarolyn420 Sep 23rd 2010 10:05PM

We have a coin worth a fortune that we will be selling. This japanese coin was found on the flight deck by the gunner in world war two after a suicide diver crashed and dies. Any idea how to go about selling it?

wildwestland Sep 23rd 2010 1:00PM

Sorry, but that coin doesn't have much value - less than $100

Peter Sep 28th 2010 11:50AM

You should go to the famous Pawn Shop in Las Vegas, the show they televised is called PAWN STARS, the owner dishes out mad cash for valueable treasures like the ones your talking about, maybe you can find the telephone number to this famous pawn shop then go there and maybe you can get your 15 minutes of fame and get paid for what you have.

cqdeed Sep 23rd 2010 11:45AM

Half percent interest in a savings acct.? I wish... Chase pays .01 percent. That is one hundredth of a percent.

Robert Sep 23rd 2010 11:47AM

more money envy,, why do people without money hate people with it so much?
Ive been attacked and beaten because i have money, people loved it

B. Taylor Sep 23rd 2010 12:05PM

I read "Mad Magazine" as a kid and can still remember a cartoon about a restaurant customer, dissatisfied with his service, remarking to his friend that he wanted to see the waiter's face when he saw the two pennies he'd left on the table as a tip. The waiter bends over with a look of astonishment on his face, looking at the pennies, much to the delight of the customer. The waiter then jumps into the air, heels clicking, screamining that one of the pennies was such-and-such and worth a million dollars and he'd never have to work again. I've looked through my pennies ever since reading that cartoon! Found a few worth some bucks but sadly, nothing to allow retirement...

bingding Sep 23rd 2010 1:03PM

I bet if I took that penny to a coin dealer he would lie and say it was the zinc version. Try to scam me out of it and then sell it for 2 million. That is how the coin business is. Dealers are only truthful with their own kind. An uneducated, low income person would not be treated the same. Maybe that is why people without hate people with lots of money.

b-evans Sep 23rd 2010 6:28PM

Sounds to me those people would be better off spending their time and energy in becoming educated and bettering their lives than being one of the culture of the perpetually aggrieved. Those content to whine and whinge consign themselves to the misery of a life of envy and jealousy.

Daniel Oct 3rd 2010 4:36PM

You'd have to be a bit of a moron to think it was the zinc version... they're ZINC, and they LOOK zinc. As in, not a copper color, a greyish metal. Lawl.

PAUL SCOTT Sep 23rd 2010 1:06PM

Dirt is only worth dirt, right. I think not. Land can be a very valuable commodity.

MrDoughnut Sep 25th 2010 7:42AM

I have two Mercury Dimes with two different size S mint marks. I assume the smallest is the micro s. I found it in my driveway after a rainfall when the driveway was paved with stones. That find was made back in the 1960's.

John F.C. Taylor Sep 25th 2010 9:28AM

Funny that this article should pop up now. Just a short while ago an episode of the television series Bones was rerun. A key part of the show was this penny. In the show it was said the penny was worth only $250K. I wonder how old that episode was.

J. Woods Sep 25th 2010 12:20PM

That version was one of the other two versions minted in 1943. Remember we has three different locations that minted coins - San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Denver. Depending upon the location and the number of error minted coins can greatly affect their value to other collectors. The value of anything is what someone else is willing to pay. To one person, it may only be worth a penny but to someone else, it was worth more than a million dollars. Or what is your house or car worth to you or to someone else?