70 Years After Teen Unknowingly Found A Rare Penny, It Sold For Thousands Of Dollars

America entered the Second World War towards the end of 1941 after a shocking attack on Pearl Harbor, although they had never planned to. Unprepared, America needed to gain access to certain materials so they could build necessary objects that were needed for the war and one thing they needed more of, was copper. One-cent’s had always been made by copper and so in 1943, to spare some of the material, U.S mints throughout America began to replace some of the copper with zinc and steel. This was well-known information across the country and it was a few years after the war was over, that rumors circulated that some copper coins were mixed into the new ones and this made them exceptionally rare. After they were first created, the coins went from place to place as any normal one-cent would, getting passed between thousands of people, all without knowing just how rare it was. When one person found one of these special coins, no one could have known the amount of money it would have been worth later on in life.

One-Cent Coin

As a 16-year-old boy sat down for his lunch in his school canteen in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, he never could have known that what he was holding in his hand was a going to become a huge historical object.

It was 1947 and Don Lutes Jr had a quick look at the change he had just been given by the cashier when he noticed that one coin, in particular, stood out against the others and as his hobby was to collect coins, he safely put this one aside, but he could never have guessed what this one-cent represented.

Message On The Coin

Allegedly designed by Benjamin Franklin, the one-cent coin was first released in 1787 and went by the nickname, “Fugio”, meaning “I flee” in Latin. At that time, the word was engraved into the coin and circled the edge of the cent. The top of the coin showed a shining sun with its rays beaming down over a sundial – this imagery was used to represent the passing of time.

Etched into the bottom of the coin were the words, “mind your business.” The coins message was said to mean, “Time is passing; get on with your work”. Although we’re not too sure many took notice, but luckily for Don Lutes Jr, he did.

During The Second World War

Along with the Fugio, a larger copper cent was made and over time, its design was changed on several occasions. The bigger cents looked rather different to the coins we use today and it wasn’t until 1857 that the size was taken back to the small dimensions. In 1909, the Lincoln cent was created and was most similar to that what we use today, created from a mixture of copper, tin, and zinc.

At the time Lutes found his coin, the ending of the Second World War was two years before, however, his coin was made in 1943, during the midst of the conflict with Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. At the time, young Lutes had no idea how that time period impacted the meaning of his one-cent.

Collectors Dream

Lutes’ coin was created at an intense time in the war. Up until the end of 1941, the United States had not been involved however the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor changed that altogether. As his one-cent was created in 1943, the properties used to make it were a knock on effect from the wartime shortages (due to the supplies that were being produced for the war).

Unbeknown to Lutes, but it was because of this that his coin was in fact exceptionally rare and would, therefore, become a desired find for coin collectors as the times moved on.

Selling At Auction

The copper that was used when creating previous coins was now needed in wartime America in other areas such as telecommunications wiring and shell casings and was therefore limited for civilian consumption. To save on copper, coins were then minted and other design elements were put forward, including a design of a glass coin!

People quickly caught on to the fact that a glass coin was probably not most appropriate and out of the two that still exist today, it was in 2017 that one of the coins was sold for $70,500 at an auction in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. So, what did that mean for Lutes one-cent coin?

Making Changes

The Second World War impacted American in a great way, with many things having to be changed to fit the demands of war. The shortening of materials meant that the one-cent coin simply couldn’t be made entirely from copper.

Therefore the U.S mints across America, specifically Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco began to produce new coins created from steel and zinc, however, the design maintained the same as that what Victor David Brenner created back in 1909.

Becoming A Rare Piece

Working with gems, Brenner took a career up as an engraver after arriving in the United States in 1890 and it was Teddy Roosevelt who found his skills to be rather impressive. Following his personal order, Brenner was awarded the commission to design the coin.

In 1924, Brenner passed away and therefore didn’t get to see the production of his coin being made in steel, or the differences it created. The coin was now 13 percent lighter than before and it was these changes that made it so rare.

Problems Began To Arise

The steel and zinc meant that the coin had become magnetic, which had never happened before and not only that, but the cent was actually the only American coin to have ever been made from those materials. Thinking they had solved a material issue, the mint was not expecting the coin to have such annoying faults as it did.

Throughout that time, vending machines packed full of food were very common and due to the coins magnetism, they would cause an issue once inside of the machine.

An Eye For It

The steel coins raised another issue, in that they would rust. The galvanizing methods they used did not cover the edges of the coin and this lead to rusting once the coins came into contact with water or even other coins. The lack of coverage on the edge meant the coins were not protected against day to day life and this created a big problem.

Lutes Jr had been collecting coins for a while however it was a minor hobby of his, and he did not invest too much time into researching the information behind different coins, although it seemed he had a knack for spotting an investment.

People Began Looking

Without knowing much about them, just by simply looking at the coins within his handful of change, he noticed one in particular. Feeling particularly draw to the coin, he placed it to one side with the thought that he would ask his family and friends if they knew any information about it.

Would they notice it was one of the rare zinc-coated steel coins? It wasn’t long until rumors of these rare copper one-cent coins created in 1943 began to swirl throughout the media and Americans began to rapidly search for them.

Everyone Wanted That Coin

There was one individual that really seemed to want to get his hands on one of these coins, the rumors of their rarity had really caught on and there was Lutes, who had this coin amongst a collection of his others.

Printed in a newspaper it said that, Henry Ford automobile went public and stated that if anyone had one of the rare cents, they would exchange one of their cars for it, and for Lutes, that was an offer he simply couldn’t refuse.

Wanting The Truth

Getting straight to business, Lutes wrote the Ford Motor Company a letter and confessed he had the coin in question in her possession, however, the answer he received was not the one he hoped for. It seemed the printed headline was a hoax, but not willing to be defeated, Lutes than wrote to the Treasury Department for clarification on his one-cent coin.

By this time, he simply wanted to know if it was special or not, and he needed an expert to tell him, and they replied with some great information.

Struck in 1943

Due to the influx of queries the U.S. Mint had received about the copper coin, they drafted a general response and this is exactly what was sent back to Lutes, the letter read, “In regard to your recent inquiry, please be informed that copper pennies were not struck in 1943.

All pennies struck in 1943 were zinc coated steel.” At this point, he felt like giving up on the coin, and excepted that is wasn’t rare at all. However it turned out, that somehow, some copper coins had gotten mixed in with the zinc coins, so there must be some out there.

Modern Confirmation

For whatever reason, the U.S. mint denied these coins existed for some time, and later information revealed that there were around 40 coins that became mixed in with the others and to this day, you can find information where the mint now acknowledges the mix up back in 1943.

More recently, Heritage Auctions released a statement saying, “The few resulting copper cents were lost in the flood of millions of steel cents and escaped detection by the Mint. They quietly slipped into circulation, to amaze collectors and confound Mint officials for years to come.” But what about Lutes’ coin?

Keeping It Safe

In September 2018, Don Lutes Jr, who by then was an Army veteran, passed away at 87-years-old, and had continued with his coin collection his entire life, and gathered a total of 50,000 throughout during his lifetime, with that rare coin mixed in with the rest, and he knew about it all along.

A good friend of his, Peter Karpinski said, “He was very proud of the fact [that] he owned it,” and now it was set to be sold at auction.

The Big Win

Once again the media was rife with speculation about how much the rare coin would collect at auction, this time it had been inspected and proven to be a copper coin from 1943! Coin collectors from all around the country came to the auction in the hope to scoop the winning prize and after a back and forth auction, Tom Caldwell, owner of Northeast Numismatics won the copper cent for $204,000.

The proceeds went to Pittsfield’s public library, as Lutes had volunteered for many years and so if you ever find a coin dated 1943, be sure to check it out.

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