A penny that a Massachusetts teenager found in his change from lunch money could be worth as much as $1.65 million (£1.3 million) when it is auctioned off. Wheat Cent Roll Lincoln Pennies - Rare Mixed Penny Lot Old US Coin. $8.00 $4.90 shipping 1944 Wheat Penny No Mint Mark (Rare). Remember that the prices are just a guide, a starting point for asserting value. Some PCGS coins sell for less than the prices listed and some PCGS coins sell for more than the prices listed. COINS UNDER $10. For coins valued at under $10, even when graded by PCGS, the price listed is the value of non-graded (i.e., “raw”) coins. I just completed my indian head cent and wheat penny collection. I started with 200 dollars and continued buying and selling using reciprocating profits untill the collection was completed. It took me 16 months to complete. I would recommend buying large lots of wheats and some collection books. Get what you need then put as many coins as you can in the extra books and sell them on ebay as.

'Holy grail' rare penny might be worth $1.7M after it was found in boy's lunch money

A rare copper penny, considered a 'holy grail' in coins, has been found in a boy's lunch money. It could reach $1.7 million in auction from Heritage Auctions.

Now that's a pretty penny.

A penny that a Massachusetts teenager found in his change from lunch money could be worth as much as $1.65 million (£1.3 million) when it is auctioned off.

The 1943 Lincoln penny is made up of copper and has been described as the 'most famous' coin made in error, according to Heritage Auctions, which is auctioning off the coin. Only 20 were ever made and for years the U.S. government denied its existence, but one coin was found by Don Lutes Jr. in his school cafeteria in March 1947.

'Despite relentless searching by eager collectors over a period of more than 70 years, only a handful of legitimate specimens have ever been discovered,' Heritage wrote on its website. 'PCGS CoinFacts estimates the surviving population at no more than 10-15 examples in all grades. We have compiled a roster of all specimens certified by the two leading grading services below, including an unknown number of resubmissions and crossovers.'

In the 1940s, copper was considered a strategic metal, largely because of World War II, as it was used to make shell casings, telephone wire and other wartime necessities. To preserve the metal, 1943 Lincoln pennies were made of zinc-coated steel, but a tiny fraction of the pennies put into circulation wound up using copper.

Almost as soon as the pennies were pressed, rumors began to emerge that some copper cents had made their way into circulation. The frenzy had become so heightened that it was speculated that car magnate Henry Ford would give a new car to anyone who could give him one of these copper pennies, though that speculation was later proven false.

'Stories appeared in newspapers, comic books, and magazines and a number of fake copper-plated steel cents were passed off as fabulous rarities to unsuspecting purchasers,' the auction house added on its website. 'Despite the mounting number of reported finds, the Mint steadfastly denied any copper specimens had been struck in 1943.'

The rumors of the copper penny, described as 'the Holy Grail of mint errors,' were eventually proven true after it was found out that copper planchets – which are actually made of bronze – had become lodged in the trap doors of the mobile tote bins used to feed blank coins in the presses at the end of 1942. The planchets went unnoticed and eventually 'became dislodged and were fed into the coin press, along with the wartime steel blanks,' Heritage wrote on its website.

Other genuine examples of the 1943 Lincoln copper penny have been found, including 10-15 from the Philadelphia Mint, a half dozen from the San Francisco Mint and one from the Denver Mint.

At the time, Lutes, who was 16, had heard of the rumor about Ford, but when he was later told it was false, kept the coin for himself in his collection. Over the years, he received offers for the coin and eventually even inquired with the U.S. Treasury about it, but was told that it was fraudulent, that 'All pennies struck in 1943 were zinc coated steel' and eventually decided to just keep it for his collection.

Before the switch took place, a handful of cents were mistakenly minted in copper, making a 1943 Bronze Lincoln cent coin one of the most famous coins in U.S. history: 76 years later, the very first of these error coins ever discovered will make history when Heritage Auctions offers the rarity Jan. 10 in Orlando, Florida. (Credit: SWNS)

The 1943 zinc-coated steel pennies proved to be so unpopular with the public that they were eventually replaced with brass recovered from shell casings.

Lutes passed away in September and now the coin is going up for auction, where no one really knows what it will sell for, Sarah Miller of Heritage Auctions said. 'This is the most famous error coin in American numismatics and that’s what makes this so exciting: No one really knows what it’s going to sell for,' Miller said in comments obtained by SWNS.

The auction is ongoing and is slated to end on Jan. 10.

Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_Ciaccia

Wheat Penny Error Coins & Values

Looking for reliable information regarding Wheat Penny error coins? Well, I have put together a list of every single noted error coin released from 1909 to 1958 along with pictures and estimated values and other information.

Error coins can be worth a mint as they are more rare than the ultra rare key date coins, which boost their desirability much higher amongst collectors everywhere. Below we will go through the official Wheat Penny error coins in chronological order.

1922 Wheat Penny: In 1922, the Denver Mint was the only mint to mint our Wheat Cents that year. A die with worn areas around the “D” which would indicate the “Denver” mint on the 1922 D Wheat Penny was worn. In a failed attempt to repair the worn die, the D was completely removed by accident, resulting in the “Plain 1922 D Wheat Penny”.

There are four different types of 1922 Wheat Pennies.

• 1922 D
• 1922 Weak D
• 1922 No D Weak Reverse
• 1922 No D Strong Reverse

The most desirable of the 4 different types of the 1922 Wheat Pennies is the 1922 No D with a strong reverse which can fetch anywhere between $700.00 – $1,000.00.

As you may already know, in 1943, World War II was going on and so the copper previously used to mint our Wheat Pennies was needed to manufacture supplies for the war. There is not very many of the 1943 Wheat Pennies circulating in existence today and the ones that are, are expected to fetch around $100,000.00 if you could come up with one. These were struck accidently and then released into circulation. They are considered extremely rare and 2nd the rarest of all Wheat Penny error coins to the 1944 steel Wheat Penny.

Wheat Penny Value Chart

The 1943 Copper Wheat Penny error coin sold in the early 1980’s for around $10,000.00 if that gives you an idea of how valuable these error pennies are. And, so 30 plus years later that figure has gone up drastically.

The 1944 Steel Wheat Penny was accidently minted with zinc coated steel just as the 1943 Wheat Pennies were. This made the rarest of all error Wheat Pennies made. These coins can fetch a serious premium.

One of the rare 1944 Steel Wheat Pennies brought a mint of $30,000.00, while a mint 1944 S Steel Wheat Penny fetched $374,000.00!

The 1955 Double Die Wheat Penny error coin is the most plentiful of all Wheat Penny error coins and can bring a small fortune itself. It is often compared to the 1922 error coin in terms of desirability although it is much more common than the 1922.

The 1955 Double Die Wheat Penny can fetch around $1,500.00 for a very fine version of the coin. In other words, one that is in exceptional shape.

The 1959 D Wheat Penny has proven to be one of the most controversial coins to mysteriously show up on the coin marketplace in years. Many experts believe the coin to be counterfeit, without any specific reasons why. The Secret Service on the other hand has twice authenticated the 1959 D Wheat Penny. The coin was scheduled to be sold in Ira & Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles, Inc. “The Pre Long Beach Auction“, in September of 2002, but it was pulled from the auction at the eleventh hour when convicted forger Mark Hofmann claimed to have made the coin. Subsequent investigation failed to confirm this claim and the coin was re-consigned to the Goldberg’s “The Benson Collection Part III”, February 24-25, 2003, Lot 159. As of February 23, 2003, no major grading service had chosen to certify the coin as genuine.

It is hard to speculate the worth of such a coin. There is only one known to exist, and it is said to be so controversial it is hard to even imagine what it would be worth. If you have one, I’d definitely get it examined and graded by a professional immediately. It could be worth thousands and thousands of dollars.

Wheat Penny Value 1942

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