Is your old penny worth a million dollars? Experts say it's highly unlikely.

You may have seen one of many headlines blasted online lately about valuable pennies in circulation, "Lincoln Wheat Penny Worth $124M You Could Have at Out Your Home" reads one, but the reality is most pennies are worth one cent or possibly a bit more.

Experts say it's highly unlikely that you own an old penny worth as much as a million dollars.

Many headlines have been circulating lately about valuable pennies in circulation, such as "Lincoln Wheat Penny Worth $124M You Could Have at Home." However, most pennies are worth one cent or possibly a bit more, and the claims in the headlines are not true.

According to Donn Pearlman, spokesman for the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG), a nonprofit organization composed of many of the nation's rare coin experts, there are a few Lincoln cents dated 1909 to 1959 with the wheat stalks design on the back ("wheat pennies") that have sold for $1 million or more.

The most valuable U.S. coin ever, a $20 gold piece, a 1933 "Double Eagle" coin, sold for $18.9 million at auction in 2021.

The most valuable pennies, which are rare but still possibly in circulation, are 1943 copper Lincoln wheat pennies. A few of these pennies were produced accidentally as the U.S. mints were supposed to use zinc to save copper for the World War II effort.

In rare cases, some of these 1943 pennies have sold for $1 million, and one sold for more than $200,000 at an auction in 2019.

Depending on their condition, those 1943 Lincoln wheat pennies would be worth at most between $100,000 and $250,000, according to John Feigenbaum, publisher of rare coin price guide Greysheet.

However, the likelihood of having a nearly priceless penny is similar to saying a lottery ticket might be worth $100,000. Of course, anything is possible, but not likely.

So-called "wheat pennies" get their name from the back of the coin having stalks of wheat encircling the "One Cent" text. They were produced from 1909 to 1958. In 1959, the wheat stalks were shorn and pennies began displaying an engraving of the Lincoln Memorial.

Most Lincoln wheat pennies are not super-valuable and are worth just a few cents more than one cent. However, some may escalate into the hundreds of dollars, depending on the condition and when minted. Certain vintages, especially with minting errors, may be worth thousands.

But the headlines about "Lincoln wheat pennies" being worth incredible sums are false and are most likely created by artificial intelligence to drive traffic to a website.

These coins are improbably in people's change, and the interest in coins has led to overvalued coins being sold on eBay and Etsy, plus there are counterfeit Lincoln wheat pennies made in China being hawked.

Even though the most valuable coins are usually in collections and have very publicly been sold and resold, sometimes people may inherit a cache of well-preserved coins or purchase some at an estate sale.

News data source: kdj.com

The above is the detailed content of Is your old penny worth a million dollars? Experts say it's highly unlikely.. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!