Do you know how to find this special penny? Coins are all around us, and sometimes they can be worth a lot more than what they seem to be.
coin value. And most recently, news sources have been reporting that this coin is worth a pretty penny!
A 1943 copper wheat penny in perfect condition could be worth over $85,000, according to sources like Coin Trackers, the New York Post, KHOU, and Daily Mail UK! KHOU, which talked to Royal Coin and Jewelry, a rare coin dealer in Houston, noted that in 1943, pennies were actually made of steel and coated with zinc to stop them from rusting.
Coin Week shares that because copper was needed for World War II efforts, all the pennies that year were supposed to be made from zinc-coated steel. However, a few copper blanks accidentally got mixed in during the minting process. These rare “mistake” coins are now selling for thousands of dollars. To reach that $85,000 price tag, the 1943 copper wheat pennies need to be in mint condition. Even those in not-so-great shape are still fetching around $60,000 on average, according to Coin Tracker. Saul Teichman, a U.S. Mint error expert, explains that collectors really boost the coin’s value.
1943 copper cents are really popular among collectors. They are worth a lot more than other coins with mistakes from that time. Even though there are some World War II coins that are harder to find than the 1943 copper or 1944 steel cents, they don’t sell for as much because they don’t have that same special appeal.
With all the buzz around these pennies, collectors need to be careful about fake ones. There are a lot of counterfeit coins out there. According to Coin Trackers, some scammers will shave down the left side of the number 8 on a 1948 copper penny to make it look like a 1943 penny. Others might take a regular steel penny and cover it with copper to trick people. If you think a coin might be fake, Coin Trackers suggests using a magnet to check it.
