1974 Lincoln Memorial Cent

1974 Lincoln Memorial Cent PCGS

1974 Lincoln Memorial Cent

Image Courtesy of Heritage Auctions on eBay

1974 Aluminum Cent

This is the first and only aluminum cent ever certified by a professional third-party grading service. The coin was submitted to ICG by a well-known national dealer on behalf of the Toven family. ICG has graded the coin AU-58 and pedigreed it the "Toven Specimen."

James Taylor, ICG's President, reported that the dealer contacted him in the fall of 2004 inquiring as to whether ICG would consider certifying the coin. "I told him we were on record as saying we would." ICG received the aluminum cent in late January 2005. "We knew immediately it was one of the few aluminum trial pieces that remain from the million and a half that had been struck in 1973, but dated 1974. The only other one that is known to exist is in the Smithsonian's National Numismatic Collection.

"The coin weighs .93 grams, less than a third of what a regular issue Lincoln cent weighs, and is the exact same diameter, 19 millimeters," said Taylor. "For Lincoln cent collectors it's the Holy Grail of the series; for others it's one of the most intriguing and mysterious coins ever struck by the Mint. Collectors have long known of its existence, but few have ever seen one."

According to Keith Love, ICG's Senior Grader, "The coin's provenance only adds to its lore. According to both the owner and published reports, an on-duty U.S. Capitol policeman, Officer Albert Toven, saw a congressman drop the coin in the basement of the Rayburn Office Building in late 1973. Picking it up, he ran after the congressman to give him back what he thought was a dime. The congressman, rushing off for a vote he was late for, told him "Oh, you keep it." Upon closer inspection, Toven realized it was not a dime but a trial piece of the aluminum cent. Now deceased, Officer Toven kept the piece, frequently re-telling the story of how he came to own it and showing it at every opportunity until it became part of his family's history."

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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