If You Have An Old Wheat Penny That Sticks To A Magnet, It May Be Worth A Small Fortune
Now this is the kind of treasure hunt I like. Usually when you’re looking for a rare coin, you have to carefully examine each coin looking for a specific defect. Not this time. Grab the old pennies and a magnet, let’s do this. I tried this on my personal Wheat Penny collection I brought down to Florida from Ohio, but had no luck. Let’s go over what you’re looking for.
The two rare pennies we’ll be discussing came from extreme measures taken during World War 2. According to SDBullion, In 1943 they needed to make a lot of ammunition, so it was decided to mint pennies with “a steel planchet covered with zinc due to a copper shortage” (A planchet is a plain metal disk from which a coin is made). There was still some copper planchets in the presses and a few 1943 pennies were made copper. Those pennies are worth a LOT. Like, buy a boat money. If you have a 1943 Wheat Penny and want to know if it’s the rare one, that’s covered here. We’re looking for a steel 1944 Wheat Penny. This picture here ain’t it:
So why am I waving a magnet over my Wheat Penny collection?
Well, the opposite of what we just discussed is true. In 1944 they decided to abandon the steel planchet and go to a bronze alloy. And just like the previous year, some of the older planchets got mixed in. About 25 to 30 of them are out there and easy to find if you know how. Spread that Wheat penny collection across the table and hold a magnet over each coin. A steel penny is the only one that will stick to the magnet. Here’s the magic part (drumroll please). If a penny sticks to the magnet, check the date. A 1943 circulated penny that sticks is worth 10 cents or so. But a 1944 penny that sticks to the magnet should net you around $40,000. Much more if it’s in really good condition. Unfortunately, I had no luck with my Ohio to Florida penny collection.
What else can I check?
If you have a collection of the quarters with the states on them, there’s a pretty cool mess up on some of the Wisconsin quarters. That story (with video) can be found here.
Live In Florida, Work Anywhere - Here Are The Top 100 Companies for Remote Jobs
