This is part of a series of blog posts I wrote for a coin collecting site circa ~2015 that seems to have disappeared off the Internet.
The humble penny seems like it shouldn’t be the subject of a quest. There’s dishes of them at every cash register, for heaven’s sake. And yet among the swimming multitudes of the little brown disks, there are those rare gems. The fact that these specimens are amongst the most mundane coin currently minted just makes the hunt all the more tantalizing.
#1: 1792 Birch Cent
For $2.5 million, you, too, can have a penny. This is the penny that actually started it all; large cents and half cents were only first struck on a regular basis beginning in 1793. The 1792 Birch Cent was a prototype, named after its designer Robert Birch. One surviving specimen was obtained at auction by collector Kevin Lipton in January of 2015 for just over $2.5 million. This is pretty much the Holy Grail of penny collectors, being the very first penny.
#2: 1793 Chain Cent
But that’s not the same as the very first official penny. The wreath design later became the standard, but first, for one year only, the 1793 Chain Cent was the first Philadelphia Mint business strike of the penny for circulation. They weren’t as popular as the Birch design; the chain loop on the reverse was contrary to the ideals of liberty, and the obverse face of Lady Liberty, with a bad case of bed head, isn’t quite the ideal most people had in mind. Later they were thought to be good luck; they were nailed to the rafters of a home by newlyweds and today it’s common to find specimens with holes in them. EF-40s can run from $50K to $70K, sans holes.
#3: 1856 Flying Eagle Cent
As with the Birch Cent, these were the prototypes for the new small cent which would become closer to the standard we know today. One need only handle one of the large cents to see why they were unpopular; they were cumbersome and heavy, a great investment of effort to transport very little value. The new slim design first features the eagle obverse known as “Old Pete,” the mascot at the US Mint. The 1856 date can run $22K for a perfect specimen. However, an EF-40 specimen of the very next year, 1857, is a more affordable $150.
#4: 1909 Proof Lincoln Cent
This was the first proof penny struck by the US Mint, and the Lincoln penny, itself, was the first United States coin ever to feature the image of a real life person as opposed to idealized characters. It was released to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth to much public interest. Lines at the bank went around the block. The initials “V.D.B.,” for the engraver Victor David Brenner, are proudly visible on the base of the proof strike’s reverse, right between those famous stalks of wheat. Only days after the first issue, the initials were removed from the design, which makes this variety rarer. As recently as 2010, specimens have sold for $200K.
#5: 1943 Copper Lincoln Cent
In 1943, as we all know, pennies were supposed to be steel, so that copper could be rationed for the war effort. Except for those few blanks that made it out of the hopper when the pennies were first being minted. By mistake, about 40 copper 1943 pennies were produced at all three mints. Because this discrepancy is so well-known, many fakes exist which, despite the ease of detection with the magnet test, must have fooled somebody once. Way back in 1996, a copper 1943 Lincoln Cent traded for $82K; who knows what one will fetch now?
