Great news! I may well be $100 million dollars richer! Maybe a billion! You too. Better yet, our respective treasures are no further away than our pockets or purses. At least, that’s the encouragement I get weekly from online posts.
Most often on my phone, messages come through telling me one of my lowly pennies could be worth $124 million. Also, a bi-centennial quarter struck in 1976 could be worth over a billion dollars! Holy cow! This is huge. They are also outright lies.
The bi-centennial quarter was the first modified version of the familiar Washington quarter since first issued in 1932. Instead of the spread-eagle on the reverse, it featured a colonial drummer. When it came out, people everywhere were enthralled and saved them en masse. Today, they still pop up. I got one in my change just yesterday. Am I a billionaire? Nope....
The insanely valuable Lincoln pennies the stories cite refer to a precious few minted in 1943. That was the year the war effort needed copper to make shells for ammunition. To supply it the Mint switched to making pennies out of steel redirecting all the copper to munitions makers. By accident, a few copper coin blanks slipped into the coin presses. Those copper 1943 cents became very valuable. Today, depending on condition, one might bring $200,000. Nice. But, nowhere near $124 million. (They are also widely counterfeited.)
Allegedly, companies send out these online come-ons to mine data. According to one report, “…these claims are often used by unethical SEO (search engine optimization) companies or tabloid publishers to drive traffic and attract attention.” They do so at the expense of people’s hopes and dreams while wasting their time.
There actually are some exceptionally valuable coins out there. Yet, other than in the case of an error coin, they’re not in people’s pocket change. Gone are the days of sifting through the daily take of coins and finding a rarity with substantial value. Folks from the 1960s will surely remember regularly seeing Buffalo nickels and Indian Head pennies in their change. Before 1964, the last year for circulating silver coins, even Mercury dimes were found. Not anymore.
Today, we have an entirely new paradigm for our change. Grab a handful of quarters and you’ll find a cavalcade of images recognizing the 50 States; America The Beautiful; American Women; and, beginning in 2027, Youth In Sports. I’d like to say people are fascinated by the endless topics. Not so much. Because so many different quarters are being minted, I fear people can’t keep up. Their eyes just glaze over while assuming more and more coins will be churned out.
One of the last vestiges of finding a rarity in coins has been in the Lincoln penny category. Two that jump out are the 1955 and 1972 double die cents. Those are pennies accidentally struck twice creating a blurred impression of Lincoln’s head, the date or the wording. Collectors love these – so much so that even circulated specimens can bring $600 to $1,000. Uncirculated versions can sell for many times that.
For now, it’s still possible to find examples of those cents in change. Particularly the 1972 double-die cent can blend in with other pennies until an eagle eye spots it. But, I’m afraid, not for long.
As made headlines last week, congress and the US government is going full-speed ahead in finally eliminating the cent from our coinage. President Trump is blamed because he pushed for the removal as a cost-cutting measure. It’s actually bi-partisan. Barak Obama also urged for its demise.
It’s said it costs more than three-cents to make a one-cent coin. Purging the cent may save around $56 million annually. Prices will now need to be rounded to the nearest nickel.
But, wait. According to the Mint, it costs almost 14-cents to produce and distribute one nickel. Will they too soon be on the chopping block? Nickels are made of 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel. Both metals have seen substantial global price hikes. Copper is up 28 percent this year alone. Time will tell.
None of this will affect coin collecting. Numismatists are fond of obsolete coins such as the half-cent, two-cent, three-cent and twenty-cent pieces. It’s just unfortunate that our most storied coin will soon be a thing of the past. What are they thinking? Hard to say. Perhaps the adage, “A penny for your thoughts,” is also destined for the scrap heap. At least, that’s my two-cents worth.
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