Produced from 1909 to 1958, the Lincoln wheat penny had wheat stems engraved on the back before its appearance changed in 1959.
Donald Trump tells the Treasury to stop making penny
President Donald Trump has told the Treasury Department to stop making pennies, citing production costs.
Do you own an old penny worth a million dollars? Experts say it’s very unlikely.
You may have seen one of the many headlines recently exploded online.
According to one expert, reality doesn’t meet the hype.
“We have a million dollar pennies, but not a million dollar pennies,” said Don Perlman, a spokesman for the Professional Monetist Guild (PNG), a nonprofit organization made up of experts in many rare coins in the country. “From 1909 to 1958, Lincolncent sold wheat stem designs (“wheat penny”) for over $1 million. ”
The most valuable US coin, a $20 gold piece, and the 1933 “Double Eagle” coin sold at auction in 2021 for $18.9 million. The rare coin price guide from Greysheet.
In rare cases, the approximately 1943 penny is on sale for $1 million, but it won over $200,000 at the 2019 auction.
Depending on their condition, the 1943 Lincoln wheat penny is worth up to $100,000 to $250,000, Faigenbaum told USA Today.
But the chances of having a penny without a price are similar to saying, “I might say that a lottery ticket is worth $100,000. Of course, anything is possible, right?
What is the value of a wheat penny?
The so-called “wheat penny” gets its name from the back of a coin with a wheat stem surrounding the text “one cent.” They were produced from 1909 to 1958. The wheat stems were then removed and Penny began displaying sculptures at the Lincoln Memorial.
Most Lincoln wheat pennies are extremely unworthy and worth more than just a few cents. However, depending on the condition, some people escalate to hundreds of dollars when built. It may be worth thousands of certain vintages, especially for mint errors. Click here for the NGC price guide.
But the very valuable headline about “Lincoln Wheat Penny” stretches your imagination. Perhaps the headlines are created by artificial intelligence to drive traffic to the website, Feigenbaum said.
“These coins are probably in the change of people,” he said.
Still, the interest that stimulated all online is “inundated with these people who believe that coin shops are rare, but not,” according to Feigenbaum, which results in
With growing interest in coins, in addition to the overvalued coins being sold on eBay and Etsy, there are counterfeit Lincoln wheat pennies made in China.
“If I saw these coins…someone is used sometimes,” Feigenbaum said.
What should I do if I have a penny or other coin I think is worth it?
The most valuable coins are usually in collections and are very publicly “sold and resold”, but according to Feigenbaum, people sometimes inherit cash of well-stored coins or buy them through real estate sales.
- Read the coin. There are apps you can use to check coins, but they are not always accurate. However, you can check the value of the coins in “2026 Red Book: A Guide Book of United States Coins.” Available online at BookStores at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. “Answer all sorts of questions like, ‘Oh, if you’re thinking about collecting Lincolncent, what do you think you can pay?’ ” said Fagenbaum, one of the book’s editors. “You can see that the book doesn’t have a million dollar cents.”
- Let me score the coins. You can authenticate coins at their value, just like jewelry, from several services, including CAC, monetary guarantee companies and professional coin grading services.
Mike Snyder is a reporter for the trending team at USA Today. You can follow him in the thread, send BlueSky, X with X and send him an email Bliss & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider &msnider@usatoday.com
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(This story has been updated to clarify the date.)