Humble Copper Penny Worth A Fortune

For those of us out there that collect coins you likely started out with the one of the cheaper items to collect. I started out collecting Lincoln cents because they were mostly inexpensive and you could still find them in your pocket change. My goal was to get as many "red" cents in my collection as possible but as they get older they can become very expensive. One lucky guy found this penny in his change in his high school cafeteria in 1947 and instantly knew it was special. It was kept in his safe for decades.

In 1943 the US was entrenched in World War 2. Certain metals became absolutely essential to produce munitions, especially copper and nickel. To save copper in 1943 the US Mint used zinc coated steel to make it's pennies. However somehow someone missed a few planchets in the machinery that were from the prior year and a few 1943 pennies came out as copper. Only 10 to 15 are known to exist. It is likely that more are out there in somebody's hoard of copper pennies, finding them though is not real likely. And keep in mind some unscrupulous souls have coated steel pennies with copper to pass them off as the real deal.

This penny sold for $230,000 US at auction, it may not look like much but scarcity makes it very valuable. So moral of the story is always check your pocket change because you never know what might be hiding in there.

photo: Heritage Auctions

I hope you found this interesting, take care and make sure to check your pocket change! If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below.

And my disclaimer: Gold and silver stacking can be a fun hobby but isn't for everyone. You can lose money. I'm not a financial advisor and this isn't financial advice, please always do your own research before spending your hard earned money.

References:
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/1943-copper-penny-auction-style/index.html