COLLECTIBLES
The penny coins worth up to $840,000: how to identify them
Dollar cents worth hundreds of thousands of dollars due to the demand from collectors have people across the US taking a second look at the markings.
Earning some extra money is never a bad thing, especially when you can get hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for a simple penny. For example, you may have seen the reports of a US collector in 2021 who was willing to pay up to $840,000 at an auction for a rare penny: a 1943 bronze Abraham Lincoln cent.
The staggering value of this small coin comes from one tiny but significant detail: a minting error made over 80 years ago.
What makes the coin so valuable?
The value of a penny depends on its quality and rarity.
In 1943, the US Mint stopped using bronze for penny production to conserve the material for the war effort. Instead, pennies were made from steel coated with zinc. This makes the bronze Lincoln cent “the most famous error coin in American numismatics,” according to David Stone, coin cataloger at Heritage Auctions.
The last bronze alloy coins were accidentally struck when leftover bronze blanks remained in the press hopper as steel coins began production.
In related news:
How many Lincoln copper coins are there?
According to Coinhub, a numismatics-focused social media account, only 40 of these coins were produced. However, the chance of finding one is ever slimmer than that, as 15 to 20 Lincoln bronze cents have already been discovered so far.
How to identify an authentic Lincoln penny
To verify if you have an authentic bronze Lincoln penny, collectors recommend bringing a magnet close to the coin. If the coin sticks to the magnet, it is not bronze and is therefore a fake. The video above provides more advice.