Rare bronze penny sells for $204,000 at Florida auction

ORLANDO — A rare 1943 bronze Lincoln penny has sold for more than $200,000 at a Florida auction.

Heritage Auctions says more than 30 people bid on the rare coin Thursday night. Only 10 to 15 of these pennies, mistakenly minted in bronze instead of steel, are believed to exist. They were made at a time when bronze and copper were being saved to fill metal shortages during World War II.

The auction house says Don Lutes found the penny in his pocket as a teenager in 1947 after getting some change at his Massachusetts high school cafeteria, and held onto it ever since.

Lutes died in September. He directed all proceeds from the sale to be donated to the Berkshire Athenaeum at the public library in Pittsfield, Mass.

Copper pennies from that year typically don’t look very different from the coin as it appears today, but it does look different from the ones manufactured in 1943. That year, the onecent coin was supposed to be struck in steel so to preserve copper for more high priority-uses during World War II. Some copper left over from pennies past managed to make its way into the presses, resulting in coins struck with the wrong material.

“Stories appeared in newspapers, comic books and magazines and a number of fake copper-plated steel cents were passed off as fabulous rarities to unsuspecting purchasers,” according to the Heritage Auctions website. “Despite the mounting number of reported finds, the Mint steadfastly denied any copper specimens that had been struck in 1943.”

The Mint similarly denied Lutes discovered such a coin when he placed an inquiry with the Treasury Department regarding his find.

“In regard to recent inquiry, please be informed that copper pennies were not struck in 1943,” the response read. “All pennies struck in 1943 were zinc coated steal.”

It was enough for him to give up on authenticating the coin and he opted instead to keep it in his collection. Lutes died in September and his coin will be up for auction through Jan. 9, Fox News reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

HA.COM A rare 1943 bronze Lincoln penny has sold for more than $200,000 at a Florida auction.