A Houston-area family has been quietly holding onto a penny worth a small fortune since the 1960s, when they bought it from a coin collector with no idea it might one day be worth $235,000. The coin, a 1943 bronze Lincoln cent, has now been professionally certified and is set to go on public display in Houston on October 3.
According to FOX 10 Phoenix, the coin will be shown at U.S. Coins and Jewelry's second-floor showroom in Houston, after the business acquired the family's certified cent. The showroom is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the outlet reports. U.S. Coins and Jewelry says only a handful of these coins have ever been discovered and that they are rarely offered for public sale.
How a Wartime Mistake Became a Six-Figure Coin
The story behind the coin traces back to World War II, when the U.S. Mint switched cent production to zinc-coated steel to conserve copper for the war effort, producing more than 1 billion steel pennies that year, per the same FOX 10 Phoenix report. But during that transition, old copper blanks remained in the presses and were accidentally struck with the 1943 date, creating an off-metal error coin never meant to exist.
The American Numismatic Association Reading Room confirms that a small number of 1943-dated cents were inadvertently struck on leftover bronze planchets during the wartime switch to steel. PCGS adds that some of those bronze planchets made it into the hoppers at all three U.S. Mint facilities, were struck, and were released into circulation without anyone noticing at the time.
A Rarity With a Shifting Head Count
Just how many of these coins exist depends on who you ask. U.S. Coins and Jewelry estimates the surviving population of 1943 bronze Lincoln cents at around 20, according to FOX 10 Phoenix. PCGS separately estimates that there may be as many as 20 of the 1943 Philadelphia Mint bronze cents known, while CoinWeek has reported that 17 Philadelphia examples had been confirmed at the time of its reporting, and Coin World has described the error as having roughly 15 known examples. The discrepancies likely reflect different counting methods and publication dates rather than any single definitive tally.
Stephanie Sabin said the 1943 bronze cent is one of the most frequently submitted and most widely misidentified coins graders see, according to the same FOX 10 Phoenix account. She noted that most submissions usually turn out to be common steel cents or copper-plated counterfeits rather than the real thing, adding that a genuine 1943 bronze cent remains rare. That caution lines up with findings from the American Numismatic Association Reading Room, which examined one counterfeit that weighed the correct 3.11 grams but turned out, under metallurgical analysis, to be struck in 100-percent copper rather than the bronze alloy used at the Mint.
Six-Figure and Seven-Figure Sales Set the Bar
Genuine examples have consistently commanded eye-popping prices. The American Numismatic Association Reading Room notes that genuine 1943 bronze cents have invariably commanded six-figure prices in recent years, including one example graded AU-55 Brown by NGC and pedigreed to the Donald G. Partrick Collection that realized $240,000 in April 2021. Coin World has reported that a different example, graded NGC MS-63 Brown, sold for $282,000 at Heritage Auctions in August 2017, and that a coin graded MS-63 Red by PCGS and stickered by CAC sold in a private transaction for more than $1 million in 2018.
The prices climb even higher for certain mint marks. PCGS reports that collectors Legend and Bob R. Simpson paid $1.7 million in 2010 for the only known 1943-D bronze Lincoln cent, and that Simpson separately paid $1 million in 2012 for the finest known 1943-S bronze cent. Stack's Bowers, which calls the coin one of America's most beloved numismatic rarities, is offering a 1943-S example graded AU-55 by PCGS with Gold CAC approval in its Spring 2026 Showcase Auction.
A Rarity With Its Own Legends
The coin's mystique has spawned its own folklore over the decades. Per FOX 10 Phoenix, Henry Ford denied claims that he would give a new automobile to the first person to find a copper example, a rumor that circulated for years without ever being confirmed. One of the coin's most famous discoveries reportedly came in 1947, when a teenager received a copper 1943 penny in change at a high school cafeteria, according to the same report.
The 1943 bronze Lincoln cent is listed among the top few coins in the book 100 Greatest U.S. Coins, published by Whitman Publishing, FOX 10 Phoenix notes. Kenny Duncan Jr. said having an example of this ultra rarity is a dream of a lifetime, according to the outlet's report. U.S. Coins and Jewelry has also said other pennies may carry rare varieties nearly as scarce as the 1943 bronze cent, a reminder for anyone checking spare change or an old coin jar before assuming it is worthless.
