| Author |
 Replies: 21 / Views: 14,134 |
|
New Member
United States
1 Posts |
I was given a penny as a boy during the 70's from my dad who worked at a bank. It looks like a aluminum penny. I can remember my dad saying that the old copper pennies would be worth money in years so we all rolled the 1974 copper pennies. I did a little research and found out 1.5 million aluminum 1974's were made and 66 1975's were made.
How would I know if it is real and if it is real, how much would it be worth?
|
|
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
790 Posts |
There was a long thread on here recently discussing this. Try searching it out. However, to make it simple, weigh it.
Edited by Jays-Dad
04/28/2008 2:49 pm
|
|
Moderator
 United States
187446 Posts |
 Weigh it! An aluminum cent is 0.937g A regular copper cent is 3.11g The current copper coated zinc cent in 2.5g |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
5318 Posts |
 For a real Al penny...you might not even need a scale. I think it should feel dramatically lighter than a bronze cent of that year. |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
543 Posts |
Wow that sounds like an iteresting find!
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
543 Posts |
Question for the experts, was this an unintentional mint error?
|
|
Valued Member
United States
336 Posts |
no its a pattern coin for congress
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
656 Posts |
They were testing new cent, because the price of copper was rising, but then it came back down, so they stopped testing. I think.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
6326 Posts |
So, "is" there a "rarity" value to it then ?.....  Edited by eaglefoot
04/29/2008 09:14 am
|
|
Valued Member
United States
177 Posts |
IF it's genuine, and IF the feds don't confiscate it, then yeah, I'd say it has a rarity value. A pretty hefty one.
|
|
Moderator
Australia
16804 Posts |
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
14454 Posts |
If I am not mistaken ICG has graded atleast one of these and they didn't turn the person in who it belonged to, I don't know if any other TPG would do the same or not, but I think they are another series of coins that are illegal to actually own so if it is real you may want to keep it close by and not speak of it to much on allot of coin forums |
|
Moderator
 United States
6563 Posts |
I really don't get the big deal of it being illegal. Isn't it like any other trial strike or variety that never went into circulation?
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
14454 Posts |
I don't know, I am just repeating what I think I read somewhere about the aluminum cents and the one that was graded
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
12437 Posts |
These aluminum trial patterns were only given to a few members of Congress(the ones sitting on various finance committees that decide monetary legislation) and then they were supposed to have been returned to the Mint and melted down just like the rest of the mintage. The recall is the part that makes them potentially illegal, regular patterns are not usually recalled so their legality is not in question. I believe that the one ICG certified did come from the estate of a Capitol police officer and it was given to him by a congressman. However, this coin still resides with the family and no attempt has been made to sell it which is probably the main reason why it hasn't been seized. Examples are also in the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian. BTW, in case you are wondering "Why in the heck did they send it to ICG?", ICG actually works with the Secret Service(or at least they did before last years upheaval, not sure if they still do) in Counterfeit Detection with agents receiving training from them. Edited by biokemist6
04/29/2008 12:02 pm
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
14454 Posts |
even after all this being said I would still love to see a picture of the coin in question or any of the aluminum cents that actually are left just because I have never seen one
|
| |
Replies: 21 / Views: 14,134 |
Posted 04/28/2008 3:22 pm
