I stumbled across this interesting story online and I wanted to share it with everyone. Could it actually be possible? http://uspatterns.com/19alcen.html
I don't think there is any way to validate nor invalidate this story, but I sure wish I had a roll of them. Of course, being illegal to own I don't know exactly what I would do with them, but I'm sure I could find a black market somewhere.
what is kind of weird though is that it said all but 3 had been accounted for by the mint. He had a whole ROLL of them. I wonder if the mint made some kind of mistake?
I love aluminum coins...this is like the holy grail. I doubt any of us regular collectors will ever be able to get them but we can dream, right?
And if any of us did it would be wise not to say anything about it since they are illegal to own... Really a shame that they are illegal, i wonder on what grounds they are illegal? All i can find is that they are illegal.
They are considered illegal because they are US Gov't property and were never released as legal tender.
Here is the coin found by officer Toven, the Capitol policeman. There is at least 1 other example that has been seen at coin shows over the years, but this is the only example that has ever been certified.
Yes... apparently the policeman saw a congressman drop it, and when he went to return it to him, the congressman thought it was a dime and told him to keep it.
One of them is owned by smithsonian. http://americanhistory.si.edu/coins/printable/coin.cfm?coincode=3_01
Why would they not ? NGC and PCGS would both fall over themselves for the chance to slab a coin like this and they have stated for the record that they will do so ! As to where it is now - who knows. But it's definitely not in the government's hands.
It is still in private hands, I don't know whose. It isn't in the ICG slab any longer though/. It is now in a PCGS slab graded MS-63
How strange. I know for a fact that PCGS would not grade this piece which has a similar history. It was returned to the owner recently along with a refund and an EMail saying they would not slab this coin because it was illegal to own. I'm not so sure NGC or PCGS would certify a 1974 aluminum cent.
It was a nonsense "pattern" coin struck to test the new golden dollar blanks. Like the 1974 aluminum cents they were all supposed to be returned to the mint.
PCGS announced in the past that they WOULD slab an aluminum cent for free. And as I mentioned the Toven cent was crossed over to a PCGS slab so they already have slabbed one.
Strange indeed. But they have both said in print that they would slab such coins whether they were legal to own or not.
