When is a penny worth millions of dollars? When it’s the only one of its kind. In 1943, at the highest point of the war effort, America was involved in two theaters of operation and copper/bronze was needed for the war effort, so most of the pennies in the United States were zinc-coated steel. However, a few bronze pennies were minted in error, or by design. An employee of the Denver mint minted the only 1943 bronze penny at that location, kept it within the family for 67 years, and preserved it from circulation. Now this one-of-a-kind bronze penny was sold for a staggering $1.7 million dollars.

Finally, a penny that’s noteworthy not because of a mistake, but because of its actual penny properties. Here’s how Laura Sperber, the buyer for Legend Numismatics who negotiated the deal, described the penny: ”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.”



http://www.popfi.com/2010/09/24/rare-penny-sold-for-1-7-million/

9/24/2010 4:58:01 PM

damn people are stupid. this penny is meaningless and still worth $0.01.

9/24/2010 5:01:18 PM

Take a penny, leave a penny

9/24/2010 5:01:42 PM

you know. i agree and disagree with wdprice3 on this.

it's a freaking penny.

but i have also spent at leasta car payment-worth on a pair of shoes.

so i guess it is to each his own.

[Edited on September 24, 2010 at 5:04 PM. Reason : srfed]

9/24/2010 5:03:57 PM

Haha thats astonishing to me. My building is over a 100 years old, one of a kind to boot, and we flip shit for a 67 year old penny?

9/24/2010 5:05:04 PM

^^^Yeah, I mean like why is Gold worth a lot, it's just metal!!!!1!!1!

9/24/2010 5:05:50 PM

^you are EXACTLY right actually.

its so weird that something like gold can be so expensive just because its "rare"

9/24/2010 5:07:09 PM

things are worth what people believe they are worth

if people decided that the shit of a certain dog was worth $17 million/oz, then so it would be

9/24/2010 5:07:20 PM

1.7 million dollars is not a lot of money to a lot of people

9/24/2010 5:12:11 PM

^correct. but we aren't talking about them.

[Edited on September 24, 2010 at 5:14 PM. Reason : i guess thats a bad way of putting it...more along the lines of, would you spend 1.7 mil on a penny?]

9/24/2010 5:13:42 PM

Quote :

"An employee of the Denver mint minted the only 1943 bronze penny at that location, kept it within the family for 67 years"

is that legal for an employee to do? if gold mine/refinery employees can't even take one speck of gold dust out of there, how can mint employees take out just-minted cash?

9/24/2010 5:14:38 PM

i think its pretty cool. i half ass collect old coins / currency and have lots of it


[Edited on September 24, 2010 at 5:16 PM. Reason : sfd]

9/24/2010 5:15:12 PM

Quote :

"However, a few bronze pennies were minted in error, or by design."

Where are the other $1.7 mil pennies?

9/24/2010 5:17:07 PM

I'd be weary of it being a reproduction or fake. How can it be independently verified that it came from the mint other than that he said he worked there.

9/24/2010 5:18:07 PM

yay for gunzz being the outlier!

9/24/2010 5:20:39 PM

Quote :

"this penny is meaningless and still worth $0.01"

a $100 bill is a piece of cotton rag with an intrinsic value of approximately nothing

9/24/2010 5:23:41 PM

Quote :

"I'd be weary of it being a reproduction or fake. How can it be independently verified that it came from the mint other than that he said he worked there."

that would be called counterfeiting
and im sure this is not

9/24/2010 5:26:58 PM

Quote :

"its so weird that something like gold can be so expensive just because its "rare""

Until recent times it was the best store of wealth ever, because it was easy to split and resistant to corrosion, and its rarity and high density gave it a high value-to-weight ratio and an even higher value-to-volume ratio, respectively.

Now it has value for other reasons, as the gold standard has been abandoned in favor of fiat currency with production controlled by central banks, and as gold has been used for tooth fillings, UV protection on space helmets, and most importantly electronic circuits.
It also makes nice jewelry and always has.

9/24/2010 5:27:04 PM

My dad has some old pennies... I remember looking through all of them to try to find one of these back when the catalogs had it prices at $300 a penny. That was a lot of money to me then.

9/24/2010 5:33:05 PM

^^i completely understand your reasoning, but at the same time....its jewelry
or a penny. or whatever...

basically JeffreyBSG hit it on the head for me....


things are only as valuable as people make them to be

9/24/2010 5:37:53 PM

coins actually have 3 values: face value, market value, and intrinsic value. sometimes they're the same, sometimes they're not. pre-1965 quarters have a face value of 25 cents, but their market and intrinsic value are much higher b/c they're silver. state quarters have a face and market value of 25 cents (unless you shop qvc), but an intrinsic value less than 25 cents.

9/24/2010 5:54:28 PM

The intrinsic value is the commodity value of the metals; for a while the intrinsic value of the penny was actually a little more than a cent and the U.S. Mint was worried about people melting giant piles of pennies and selling the metals for scrap and then made that illegal.

9/24/2010 5:59:31 PM

Quote :

" Now it has value for other reasons, as the gold standard has been abandoned in favor of fiat currency with production controlled by central banks, and as gold has been used for tooth fillings, UV protection on space helmets, and most importantly electronic circuits. It also makes nice jewelry and always has."

Troll, go for a stroll. That may have been the dumbest thing I read today, and I've been on tdub for more than an hour.

9/24/2010 7:57:53 PM

gold has some excellent properties compared to other metals. It's an amazing conductor of heat and electricity, you can make it thinner than a sheet of paper, and it's one of only two metals with color at room temperature. It is extremely corrosion resistant as well. I don't think these properties make it worth $2,000 an ounce, but it is a valuable element.

9/24/2010 8:24:46 PM

Gold, the barbaric relic, has been a store of wealth since man found it and used it as a medium of exchange.

It will always be this way and if central banks around the world continue the beggar they neighbor policies, it will go to 2000/oz.

9/24/2010 9:15:53 PM

Quote :

"nd it's one of only two metals with color at room temperature. "

i don't know any transparent metals... so they all have color.

i guess you meant color other than silver/whitish.

9/24/2010 9:46:22 PM

?topic=602140

[Edited on September 24, 2010 at 10:16 PM. Reason : $link]

9/24/2010 10:15:28 PM

Quote :

"a $100 bill is a piece of cotton rag with an intrinsic value of approximately nothing"

9/24/2010 10:37:19 PM

WTF???

gold $2k/oz?? I would be selling now if that were the case

platinum isn't even that high right now.

That is closer to prices for rhodium.

9/25/2010 9:33:19 AM

that's really cool. i've made some minor efforts in coin collecting and i like the idea that like this dude something i save at one point and hold onto for a long time may one day have value for children/grandchildren/etc.

9/25/2010 10:01:22 AM

^^ it broke $1300/oz yesterday

9/25/2010 10:26:32 AM

^ yeah I saw, time to get some ingots out

9/25/2010 10:35:26 AM

^5 it still has no intrinsic value

9/25/2010 1:36:17 PM

Quote :

"if gold mine/refinery employees can't even take one speck of gold dust out of there, how can mint employees take out just-minted cash"

Because mining companies, especially those who work in precious metals, treat their workers like shit. The government does not.

9/25/2010 2:29:35 PM

so you are saying as money comes down the 'assembly' line you are free to help yourself to it if you work there?

9/25/2010 2:43:31 PM

Quote :

"^5 it still has no intrinsic value"

But it does have true, objective value.

9/25/2010 2:54:23 PM

It was a fucking penny. He likely put a penny from his pocket into the circulation to make up for it.

9/25/2010 3:03:17 PM

1) [OLD]

I had a book about pennies when I was like 10 years old that went over this exact topic

2) There is a key word in there that is very misleading if you read over it.

Quote :

"at the Denver Mint."

This actually happend at other mints - mostly because the hoppers still had a few old blanks in them when they were refilled with the new metals - so there are a few of these pennies in existance.

Unless the Denver Mint is particularly notable for some reason then the person that bought this penny was likely mislead or is just a retard. They are rare - but to call it one of a kind is a little misleading.

[Edited on September 25, 2010 at 3:10 PM. Reason : .]

9/25/2010 3:09:46 PM

Quote :

"But it does have true, objective value."

I think what he means is that a $100 bill has value wholly because people believe it has value

whereas a sandwich, if you are hungry, has value whether other people believe it or not

9/25/2010 5:05:38 PM

Nah this penny has value because people (well, one person) believes it has value.

A $100 bill has value because the government says it has value.

9/25/2010 5:19:44 PM

same basic idea, though. if we go through some super-inflationary era, $100 bills could become next-to-worthless

but a sandwich will always have value

9/25/2010 5:25:32 PM

Huh? You're saying the dollar doesn't really have value now because we might print too many of them in the future?

We might for some weird reason produce an abundant oversupply of sandwiches, making them have little value as well.

9/25/2010 6:26:53 PM

So technically its something that shouldn't have existed, so is it even worth a penny?

9/25/2010 9:57:25 PM

Quote :

"so is it even worth a penny?"

Clearly not, as it is worth 170 million of them.

9/25/2010 10:05:29 PM

sounds like this thread needs a lesson on intrinsic vs extrinsic value

9/25/2010 11:12:13 PM

I hope the buyer used it for a:

9/25/2010 11:38:01 PM

Quote :

"Unless the Denver Mint is particularly notable for some reason then the person that bought this penny was likely mislead or is just a retard. They are rare - but to call it one of a kind is a little misleading."

Well, it is one of a kind according to the article. It says that only one was minted at the denver mint, so among a number of exceedingly rare pennies, this is the only one with a D stamped on it.

9/25/2010 11:45:33 PM

Quote :

"Clearly not, as it is worth 170 million of them."

Actually, it's 17 billion pennies.

9/25/2010 11:45:53 PM

^ No it isn't

9/26/2010 1:35:33 AM

set em up

9/26/2010 1:37:11 AM