A penny that spent more than six decades with a Texas family has turned out to be one of the rarest Lincoln cents around, with experts valuing the newly authenticated coin at $235,000.
According to the American Numismatic Association, U.S. Coins and Jewelry recently acquired the 1943 bronze penny after the family that owned it had kept the coin for more than 60 years without professional verification. The family reportedly bought the penny from a collector during the early 1960s before eventually taking it to professional appraiser Alvin Stern, who helped arrange its authentication.
The Professional Coin Grading Service certified the penny as Extremely Fine 40, commonly identified as XF40, according to the American Numismatic Association. The organization reported that U.S. Coins and Jewelry co-owner Kenny Duncan Jr. later purchased the authenticated coin for display at the Houston shop.
What makes the penny so valuable comes down to what it is made of.
According to the U.S. Mint, regular pennies produced in 1943 were made from zinc-coated steel because copper was needed during World War II. The Mint confirms that a limited number of copper cents were accidentally struck at the beginning of that year, creating one of the most famous mistakes in American coin collecting.
PCGS reports that more than one billion steel Lincoln cents were produced across the Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco mints during 1943. Instead of the bronze composition normally associated with Lincoln cents from that era, the government temporarily switched to steel as part of wartime copper conservation efforts.
A tiny number of bronze blanks, also known as planchets, apparently made their way into the production process anyway. The result was the rare 1943 bronze penny that collectors have spent decades trying to locate.
PCGS President Stephanie Sabin emphasized that finding a penny with a copper appearance and a 1943 date does not automatically mean someone has struck it rich.
“The 1943 bronze cent is one of the most frequently submitted and most widely misidentified coins we see,” said PCGS President Stephanie Sabin. “The overwhelming majority turn out to be common steel cents or copper-plated counterfeits. Confirming a genuine example, as we did with the XF40 specimen, is rare. ”
That warning matters because counterfeit and altered versions of the 1943 bronze penny have circulated for decades. According to PCGS CoinFacts, counterfeiters have created lookalikes by copper plating genuine 1943 steel cents and by altering dates on other Lincoln pennies.
The U.S. Mint says one of the easiest preliminary checks involves a magnet. A normal 1943 steel cent will stick to a magnet, while an authentic copper alloy example should not. The agency cautions that a coin passing the magnet test still needs expert authentication.
Weight provides another clue. According to PCGS CoinFacts, an authentic bronze example should weigh about 3.11 grams, compared with roughly 2.70 grams for the standard 1943 steel penny. PCGS also warns that the shape of the number 3 in the date is important because altered coins can be made to resemble the rare version.
In comments published by FOX Local, Duncan suggested there could still be unusual coins sitting unnoticed in personal collections.
“It’s very likely there are pennies out there that are similar to this particular 1943 bronze Lincoln cent. There are said to be other pennies with rare varieties that are as scarce as this coin,” said U.S. Coins and Jewelry co-owner Kenny Duncan Jr.
Exactly how many genuine examples remain is difficult to reduce to one number because numismatic population estimates can differ depending on how coins are documented. The American Numismatic Association described the newly authenticated example as one of an estimated 20 known to exist. PCGS CoinFacts separately estimates approximately 15 to 17 Philadelphia examples, one known Denver example and six confirmed San Francisco pieces.
The rarity has produced major prices when authenticated examples reach the market.
According to Heritage Auctions, a Philadelphia 1943 bronze cent graded AU55 by PCGS sold for $312,000 in April 2025. Another example graded AU55 sold through Heritage for $264,000 in January 2025, according to the auction house’s records.
Coins from other mints have reached even higher levels. PCGS CoinFacts records an auction price of $504,000 for a 1943 San Francisco bronze cent graded MS63BN. The only known 1943 Denver bronze cent has an even more remarkable history. According to PCGS, that coin changed hands privately for $1.7 million in 2010. PCGS CoinFacts records a later $840,000 auction sale for the Denver specimen in 2021.
The current $235,000 figure therefore applies to the newly authenticated XF40 coin rather than establishing a fixed price for every 1943 bronze cent. Auction history from PCGS and Heritage shows that condition, mint location, provenance, and collector demand can produce dramatically different prices.
The penny also comes with decades of folklore. According to PCGS CoinFacts, a longstanding rumor claimed Henry Ford would exchange a new automobile for anyone who discovered a 1943 copper penny, but Ford never made such an offer.
The search was very real, though. Heritage Auctions reports that teenager Don Lutes Jr. received a genuine 1943 bronze cent in change from his high school cafeteria in 1947. His coin remained with his family for approximately 70 years before Heritage sold it in 2019 for $204,000.
For Duncan, the newly authenticated Texas example offers collectors a rare opportunity to see a coin many people know only through photographs and auction records.
“Having an example of this ultra rarity is a dream of a lifetime. Few examples are ever offered, and outside of the Smithsonian and American Numismatic Association collections, getting to view one is a privilege few get,” said Duncan Jr.
According to the American Numismatic Association, the $235,000 1943 bronze penny is scheduled to go on public display at U.S. Coins and Jewelry in Houston beginning October 3, giving collectors another reason to check those old jars, inherited coin collections and forgotten rolls of pennies a little more carefully.
