[music playing]
RICK: Hey, how can I help you? RAY: How you doing? I have a coin I think you
might be interested in. RICK: OK. RAY: It's a steel penny. Are you familiar with those? RICK: Yes, I am. Whoa. It's a 1944 steel penny. That is really neat. I know there's less than
100 of them in existence. Well, from my research,
there's less than 30 that exist. RICK: OK. You know, I own a pawn
shop and I deal in, like, a gazillion
different things, so I can't know everything,
even though my kids tell me I'm a know-it-all. [laughs] RAY: I'm coming to
the pawn shop today to sell a 1944 steel penny. This is a very rare coin. It was given to me as a
gift for my 70th birthday. I know I don't
look 70 years old, but I am as old as this coin. RICK: It's amazing. This is a really,
really weird coin. This coin isn't
supposed to exist. It was-- RAY: That's correct. RICK: You know, World
War II happens along. I mean, just everything
was rationed. Bacon was rationed. And the US government
came along and says, hey, you know, we make tens of
millions of pennies every year. Basically told the
US Mint, you have to make cents out
of something else, because copper is a war metal. So they started making
the cents during 1943 out of steel that were zinc-plated,
and everyone absolutely hated them. People were confusing the steel
cent for a nickel or a dime-- A dime. RICK: So in '44, we stopped
making the steel pennies. But when you're making
tens of millions of cents, you know, steel bends
and stuff like that. And they think that,
like, some of the blanks got, like, stuck in the
corners and things like that. And when they pouring them
out into the machines, a few of these got made. This coin is one of the great
mistakes of the US Mint. And in general, when
the United States Mint makes a mistake on
a coin, that coin is gonna be worth a lot of money. How much are you
asking for this? $102,000. RICK: Whoa. I am gonna call in a friend,
look this thing over 100%. You know what I mean? For-- For 102%. RICK: 102%, yeah. [laughs] Um, this
is pretty amazing. DAVE: These 1944 steel cents
and the 1943 copper cents are probably the most famous
errors of the 20th century from the United States Mint. And you would not
believe how many people have dug through mounds and
mounds of pocket change trying to find one of these because if
you find one, it's a gold mine. And we're looking at
one of them right now. Yeah you are, yes. RICK: So how many
of those actually got out into circulation? DAVE: Well, that's a big
question because these were struck at all three mints-- Philadelphia, Denver,
and San Francisco. They struck-- oh,
it was something like 2 billion cents in '43
and '44 at the three mints. And the total population of
off-metal strikes is about 60. And most of them were struck
at Philadelphia, like this one. May represent something like
half the known population. However, it's still a rare coin. Yeah, and if there's
only 30 of them out of a couple billion--
DAVE: Yeah. RICK: --then it's pretty rare. It's a very rare coin. RICK: So what do you
think this would go for? DAVE: Approximately $30,000. And-- That seems awfully low to me. It's a public
auction, both of them. That's OK, but you don't
necessarily have to bring this coin to a public auction. DAVE: No, but public
auctions are actually where the most
realistic prices are set because every major
collector in the world gets those catalogs
because these are high profile auctions. There's many sites that
value that coin a lot higher-- DAVE: Right. --than that number. But the auctions are
very clear in determining the value of these coins. OK.
All right. Have a good one, Dave.
- All righty. Thanks. RAY: The value of $30,000 for
this coin is extremely low. This is probably
one of the rarest penny coins in existence. I don't know where the expert
came up with that value. It is what it is. For this thing, I
would give you, like-- I would give you $25,000 for it. No. I'm not sure you know
what you have here. RICK: Well, I know
exactly what I have. No. I have something that
I would probably sell between $30,000 and $35,000. RAY: There's none
for sale though. There's none of these for sale. This is the one. RICK: OK. I-- if you want-- This is the only--
this is the only one in the state in Nevada. Maybe, but it's
still what it is. What's the lowest you'd go? You know, I'd drop
it down to the minimum that it's valued
at, about $75,000. RICK: Not gonna happen. RAY: Then we will not
be able to make a deal. Have a good one, though.
Thanks for stopping by. RAY: You too. No problem. I think the offer of
$25,000 is ridiculously low. But I'll just keep
it in the family, and somebody eventually
will sell it for a lot more than I'm being offered today.
Steel penny, the 1943 copper penny is the find you’re looking for
I think this is the same coin, sold for a little over 30k in 2014