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 Replies: 37 / Views: 13,637 |
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New Member
United States
5 Posts |
Hi,
I'm doing some research on the 1974 Aluminum penny and so far what I've found doesn't seem to be that accurate--historical accounts differ from site to site. I've looked at wikipedia, US Mint website, various coin collection sites, and then standard yahoo/google posts. I have a few questions if anybody wants to take a crack at them and help me out.
First of all, some people say that there were Philadelphia mint coins only, and others say there were Denver mint as well but only 10 were made. True, False?
Second, I know they are considered "illegal" and therefore no public sale of them has occurred, but is there an estimate for value of the coin(s)?
Is there any record of how many of the coins are in existence still?
What year was the Secret Service placed in charge of collecting and destroying the remaining coins?
Thanks for any help!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
958 Posts |
Do you have one ?  Edited by coppertop5150
01/02/2011 01:09 am
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New Member
 United States
5 Posts |
No, I'm just doing some research. I found a couple of cool pennies when I was going though my coin jar and in the process of looking up info on those I discovered the aluminum penny. I'm thinking about researching it for a class project (I'm a college student) but the information I'm finding just seems to be flat out contradictory.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
958 Posts |
The entire alum cent story is a " spin "
It's been repeated 100's of times on various forums
new stuff gets added to it every time
The orginal statement was the mint exp with alum cents manufacture due to rising copper cost in 1972
The cents were minted and destroyed.Copper cost fell the issue was dead no need to change cents from copper.
Later copper rose in 1980 and the choice was made in 81 to make zinc/copper cents. Production started in 82
The rumors for the alum cents are
1. Some fell on the floor and were swept away and picked up my janitors.
2. Some were grabbed out of the destruction bin.
3. Some were given to congress men
4 As of recent one was given to a guys mom in pocket change at a diner she worked at near DC in some tip change
5 One exist in the smith musem prob donated by someone that had acess to the mints manufacture and testing facility at one time
6 When people find a sliverish colored cent they make up stories that it came from a govt official
7 A cop got one from a congress man. Even that story is still a story
becuase " it came from a congress man" to a police officer makes it seem as it was o.k to own becuase it came from a congressman. Doubtfull it was prob stolen from someone that worked at the mint
The only thing thats stands to date is they are illegal to own and ordered to be destroyed
Edited by coppertop5150
01/02/2011 01:25 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1042 Posts |
Z173408,
First off, welcome to CCF.
There's quite a few different threads about the '74 Aluminum cent here. To help in your research, I suggest typing "1974 Aluminum" into the search section.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
958 Posts |
for some reason alum cents threads seem to turn up around 4th of july , thanks giving and now new years.They last about 5-6 pages long
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New Member
United States
5 Posts |
Thanks for the replies.
I did try a manual search but most of what I was coming up with was people claiming they had one and a lot of responses saying they couldn't have one which isn't what I'm looking for. I'm not claiming to have one--just trying to find out some specific facts that don't seem to occur in most histories for my research. I can't write a thesis over rumors as you might imagine.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
958 Posts |
if you want a interesting topic.
You should write about the " henning nickle " .
Henning is a guy that counterfieted money back in the 40's and 50's
Henning maufactured nickles by the hundred thousands and got them into circulation.
So real looking even the secret service could not be convenced untill he slipped up on one year 1944 nickle and left off a mint mark. Even then the u.s mint took the fall for the error at first .Then eventually the tracked down the nickles to one location and pin pointed henning buying supplies
I think it would be a awsome story for a movie one day.
How they traced him down, how he did it, how he dumped the nickles in the river
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New Member
United States
5 Posts |
It sounds like a cool story but I'm really more interested in the 1974 penny. I'd like to tie the penny's material change of 1974 (and other dates) to present day and explore the actual use of one cent. More of an economic angle on the history of the penny. The discussed (and then discarded) aluminum penny would be a pretty significant portion of the history of the attempts to make a single cent coin economical to produce. I have a general history of what happened to the coins during their examination, but then it seems like they simply disappear which is frustrating since it seems they weren't all returned. It's the one penny I can't seem to get a grasp on after it was minted.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
958 Posts |
You should start with the 1943 cents . Steel plachet coated with zinc cent.
You can document them who ,what ,why ,how questions can all be anwsered
Nothing to grasp on the 74 alum cents , they were minted and destroyed a few leaked out into circulation
not much of a story
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New Member
United States
5 Posts |
Yeah, I've seen that there really isn't much to the story after they were destroyed. My questions are if a "few leaked out into circulation", what happened to them? If there truly is no information that anybody can give then I guess I have to let it go. But I'm going to ask until I get at least a few answers that coincide with each other in regards to the "after". I don't mean to undermine your knowledge by any means, but it would be foolish and naive of me as an academic researcher to get one answer and not compare it to others.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1042 Posts |
Quote:
just trying to find out some specific facts that don't seem to occur in most histories for my research. I can't write a thesis over rumors as you might imagine. I wish you the best of luck finding specific facts about this particular coin. If I ever did own one, the very last thing I'd do is actually admit that I did via wikipedia, or other coin-collecting sites. Supposing that I did own one, and wanted to sell it...I sure as heck would never advertise it on the https://www.My 2010 RedBook tells me that "1,579,324 cents dated 1974 were struck in aluminum as experimental pieces. None were placed in circulation, and most were later destroyed. One was preserved for the National Numismatic Collection in the Smithsonian Institution." Quote:"None were placed in circulation,"  I'm betting that more than a few of these coins survived. And that they're being well cared for. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
958 Posts |
the "after" is this
its been 35 years one is in amusem ,and another a personal collection. The rest destroyed
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2669 Posts |
The ANA may be able to help. I'm not sure if they've ever been asked to verify the 'official line' on the 1974 aluminum cents, but it would be worth a shot... https://www.money.org (try a search first then their contact links). Also, I think in one of the threads you spoke about (about someone 'having one') there was detail on a letter or press release from the US Mint regarding these. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
14454 Posts |
here is a link to the one that was graded by ICG and also has some information about it http://www.coincommunity.com/us_sma...ial_cent.aspQuote:The story behind the Mint's striking of the 1974 aluminum Lincoln Cent is well documented. In the early 1970s, copper prices steadily rose on the international market. By the summer of 1973 the copper content in the cent approached the cost of manufacturing the coin. As a result, the Mint began looking for alternative metals. After testing seven different alloys of aluminum, legislation was sent to Congress in December 1973 which would give the Secretary of the Treasury authority to adopt an aluminum alloy for the one-cent coin. The bill was sent to the House Banking and Currency Committee and the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Meanwhile, the Mint had already begun striking the aluminum coins, using regular-production Lincoln Cent obverse and reverse dies. (Mint records indicate that 1,571,167 of the aluminum cents were eventually struck over the course of two production runs.) In order to show Congressional leaders what the coins would look and feel like, fourteen of the trial pieces were given to the committee members and their staffers--nine to House and five to Senate committee members. (Other pieces were also given to Mint and Treasury officials.) With the fall of copper prices in 1974 and the opposition of the vending machine industry, incredibly the coins would not work in vending machines, the proposal never got out of committee. At this point, the Mint decided to melt down the million and a half pieces it had struck. Today, no one is certain if any other pieces remain. As previously mentioned, one piece is in the Smithsonian collection and the most recent one, the "Toven Specimen," after more than 30 years of obscurity, is in an ICG holder. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
880 Posts |
Well that was a fun piece of history. I didn't even know that they were ever struck.
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Replies: 37 / Views: 13,637 |
Posted 01/02/2011 01:09 am
