Start rummaging through your junk drawers and between your couch cushions; you may own a rare penny worth up to $600,000.
The coin to look for is a Lincoln Memorial cent minted in San Francisco in 1969 with a “doubled die” error.
The error occurs when the stamp used to manufacture the coin, known as a die, is accidentally struck out of alignment, causing the design to appear doubled or offset.
Only 40 to 50 of these pennies exist today, according to an estimate by coin auction house Stack’s Bowers.
The auction house called the doubling on the coin “very dramatic,” and said it is perhaps 100 times rarer than the well-known 1955 and 1972 pennies with the doubled die error.
open image in gallery
open image in galleryThe 1969-S coin with the “doubled die” error can range in price from $31,500 to $605,000, according to online precious metals retailer SD Bullion.
Stack’s Bowers listed several coins in this variety that have sold for tens of thousands of dollars, including one for $72,000 in August 2023 and one for $86,250 in November 2010. In March 2018, one of the coins sold for $126,000.
The penny is very popular among collectors, as it was the first time a real person was featured on a U.S. circulating coin, according to SD Bullion. It was first introduced in 1909 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of former President Abraham Lincoln’s birth.
While 1969 Lincoln Memorial cents aren’t particularly rare without the minting error, just around 544.38 million were manufactured in San Francisco and released into circulation compared to the roughly 1.14 billion and 4 billion made at the Philadelphia Mint and Denver Mint, respectively, according to SD Bullion.
The U.S. stopped manufacturing pennies for circulation last year as the Treasury Department determined the coin was no longer necessary and too costly to make. Manufacturing a single penny cost 3.69 cents, and now that the federal government has ceased production, it expects to save about $56 million per year.