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When bullets and wires needed copper to win the Second World War, an accident in 1943 at the US Mint created one of the most valuable pieces in American history. (Credit: SWNS)
Now, it's a pretty penny.
A penny that a Massachusetts teenager found in his lunch money conversion could be worth up to $ 1.65 million (1.3 million pounds sterling) when he will be auctioned.
The Lincoln Penny of 1943 is made of copper and has been described as the "most famous" coin made by mistake, according to Heritage Auctions, which is auctioning it. Only 20 copies were made and the US government denied the existence of the latter for years, but Don Lutes Jr. found a coin in the cafeteria of his school in March 1947.
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"Despite the relentless research being conducted by enthusiastic collectors over a period of over 70 years, only a handful of legitimate specimens have ever been discovered," Heritage said on its website. "PCGS CoinFacts estimates that the surviving population has no more than 10 to 15 examples in all classes.We have compiled a list of all specimens certified by the two major ranking services below, including an unknown number of news items. submissions and crosses. "
In the 1940s, copper was considered a strategic metal, largely because of the Second World War, in that it was used to make shell shells, telephone wires and wires. other necessities of the war. To preserve the metal, the 1943 Lincoln centimes were made of zinc-coated steel, but a tiny fraction of the coins circulated was coated with copper.
Almost as soon as the coins were pressed, rumors began to emerge that copper cents would have entered the circulation. The frenzy had become so intense that it was assumed that the car magnate, Henry Ford, would give a new car to anyone who could give him one of those copper cents, although this speculation proved to be false thereafter.
"Stories have appeared in newspapers, comics, magazines and a number of fake copper-plated steel cents have been touted as fabulous rarities for unsuspecting buyers," the auction house added. its website. "Despite the growing number of reported discoveries, the Royal Mint has firmly denied that copper specimens were struck in 1943".
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At that time, Lutes, who was 16, had heard of the rumor about Ford, but when he was later informed that it was wrong, kept the piece in his collection. Over the years, he received offers for the play and eventually even asked the US Treasury. It is said that it was fraudulent, that "all the pennies hit in 1943 were zinc coated steel" and eventually decided to keep it for his collection.
Before the transition, a handful of cents was wrongly struck on copper, making the Lincoln Lincoln coin of 1943 one of the most famous pieces in American history: 76 years later, the whole first of those erroneous pieces ever discovered Heritage Auctions offers the rarity of January 10 in Orlando, Florida. (Credit: SWNS)
The galvanized steel coins coated in 1943 proved so unpopular to the public that they were eventually replaced by brass pieces extracted from the sockets.
Lutes died in September and the coin will now be auctioned. Nobody really knows what she's going to sell, "said Sarah Miller of Heritage Auctions. "This is the most famous piece of American numismatic error and that's what makes this experience so exciting: no one really knows what it's going to do," Miller said in comments by SWNS.
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The auction is underway and should end on January 10th.
Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_Ciaccia
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