Pure Silver Penny

It looks like silver to me. Very nice! Thanks for sharing!


The planchet expanded to "fill" the cent collar; therefore it should be thinner than a normal dime.

Oooo, an old ANACS photo certificate- I was wondering and hoping that is what you were talking about
If it had just been something that some random dealer wrote up, then it would be worthless but that photo certificate is golden. Those certificates are pieces of numismatic history. The American Numismatic Association started authenticating coins back in the 70s and issued those photo certs. They eventually graded the coins too and were the first big third party grader until PCGS swamped the market. The photo certs ended when the era of plastic slabs came about and the ANA sold off ANACS.

If that had been any other date besides 1943, it would have never circulated that long. But since 1943s were the Steelies, it must have just kind of blended in with the normal ones. I would imagine, even in that state of wear, that the coin would probably be worth more than your average off metal Wheatie. Heritage Auction Galleries sold a PCGS AU50 in 2006 for $4900 http://coins.ha.com/common/view_ite...&Lot_No=1963

Absolutely awesome error

Thanks for all the info. I'll take any suggestions as to who to call about a sale or auction. I'm a little hesitant to do anything with it locally. My mom took it to a coin store here in the OKC area and was offered 250 for it and told that it was not terribly uncommon. Fortunately she had a sense that he was not being totally up and up with her.

My late aunt and her husband were amateur collectors and she did have a few other coins that she thought had value, but surely not to the extent of the silver penny. My mom also has a 1835 Liberty Bust dime, an 1822 Lombardy-Venetia 1 centesimo. She also has a 1978 d Kennedy half which she saved. I see nothing myself which looks any different, but apparently she did. If you all want, I can photograph and post those too.

Thanks again, and thanks for the welcome.
Paul

True, actually the 1943 is the most common year for cents struck on dime planchets because they DIDN'T stand out during visual inspection like they would in other years, and the steel cent was the same weight as the silver dime so they couldn't be separated by weight either.