A small Lincoln cent coin could represent a before and after in your economic reality. This 1943 bronze item is one of the most fascinating anomalies in American numismatic history. There’s just one detail that sets it apart enough to raise its price to $504,000 on the coin buying and selling market.
The fascination surrounding this type of coin dates back to the 1940s. In this case, the Lincoln cent coin is known for its rarity and the lore surrounding its discovery. This specimen is highly coveted by collectors. This is indicated by Heritage Auctions in multiple articles published on its specialized website.
An error that turns the Lincoln cent into one of the most coveted coins
The specimen in question is graded M563 Brown by PCGS and approved by CAC. It is the best known of this famous error, which makes it a centerpiece of the famous Simpson Collection. Added to this are multiple contextual factors of the time.
For example, what happened during World War II with copper. Let’s remember that at that time this material became a fundamental resource in terms of municipalities and communication equipment. As a result, the Treasury Department ordered the U.S. Mint to produce pennies using zinc-coated steel planchets instead of traditional brass in 1943.
The three active U.S. Mint websites collectively created more than one billion of these steel pennies that year. San Francisco alone produced 191,550,000 units. However, some bronze planchets, intended for 1942 production, remained in the Mint’s supply garbage cans. All were inadvertently mixed with the steel planchets and minted as 1943-dated coins.
Such an error was repeated at the Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco Mint. As a result, it yielded a handful of 1943 bronze cents. Of these, only six specimens from the San Francisco Mint have been verified, making them incredibly rare units, thus raising their price to $504,000.
A more than eye-catching story
Rumors about the 1943 Lincoln penny began circulating shortly after its accidental release. In the 1940s, stories spread that Henry Ford might reward anyone who found one of these bronze pennies with a brand new car. This myth contributed to a surge of interest among collectors, who traveled miles and used their banknotes in search of these hard-to-find specimens.
According to the specialized website mentioned above, the first discovery of one of these coins took place in 1944. The person who came across this specimen was Kenneth Wing, Jr., a teenage collector from Long Beach, who found it in circulation. It then appeared on the auction market in the Dr. Charles L. Ruby collection in 1974.
After much back and forth, Bob Simpson acquired the coin in a private transaction. It was a record $1 million deal in 2012, being a key piece in Simpson’s all-time best Lincoln cent PCGS record set. It is currently part of the top 100 most misplaced coins in the United States and is represented in PCGS CoinFacts. Also, they are considered one of the rarest units today, so each regularly sells for six figures at auction.
