Children don’t pay too much attention to the monetary value of items. The value of most things is determined by their attachment to it. While you might assume young kids only care about toys, there’s one boy which can’t be lumped into that category. His quick wit in the past might just make him a millionaire today.
Don Lutes Jr. was just 16-years-old on the day fate decided to play a fun little trick. At school in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Don came across a rare penny. It was only 1947, and the penny came in a bunch of change which his school cafeteria gave to him. Despite his age, Don knew that the penny was something special.
Although the federal officials shrugged off the coin, Don didn’t let the rejection dampen his spirits. He held on to the coin, knowing that it had some value to it. What Don didn’t realize was that the coin could have made him a millionaire. The coin is now considered an incredibly rare item. Tragically, Don passed away in late 2019. The penny has since been retrieved and put on auction. Heritage Auctions is in charge of the piece and the bid is currently at $130,000. It’s expected to rise in the following days.
Who wouldn’t want to get their hands on an incredibly rare historical piece? It’s the perfect addition for any collector who wants to flaunt this amazing item. In fact, this piece blows most rare coins out of the water. Sarah Miller, a spokesperson for Heritage Auctions, spoke about the coin in an official statement. She said that it was “the most famous error coin” that had been found in American numismatics. Miller continued to explain that nobody is sure how much it will sell for.
The coin is considered to be an error coin for a very interesting reason. During the Second World War, copper was in short supply due to its extensive use in bullets, wires, and other wartime necessities. The US Mint started producing Lincoln pennies with a zinc steel coating in 1943. An accident led to the creation of several of these rare copper coins. When mixed in with the other coins with zinc-coating, it became very difficult to separate them. Not everyone was able to come across these special pennies.
Around the same time that Don came across the rare coin, many other people were eager to find similar coins as well. At the time, Don simply had no clue how valuable such a find could be. However, the boy knew enough to realize that the coin wasn’t the same as the normal pennies he was accustomed to seeing every day.
The hysteria surrounding these coins led to a series of scams and falsehoods. It was once reported that Henry Ford was willing to give away a vehicle for every rare penny that was handed in. This was false, of course. The auction website reported that several magazines, comic books, and newspapers printed stories about these pennies. People were ripped off thinking they were purchasing a rare coin when they were really buying a normal penny.
Don was lucky to come across such a rare coin. Although he wasn’t aware of the full value of the coin, he certainly knew there was something special about it. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to see the true value of the coin be revealed.
