There is an article in the San Diego Union today about the discovery of a 1974-D penny by Randy Lawrence in a bag of coins he inherited from his father. It turns out that the Denver Mint’s deputy superintendent in the 1970s was Harry Edmond Lawrence, Randy’s father. Is it actually possible that Randy Lawrence and his coin dealer agent Michael McConnell will be able to auction this coin off as they intend, or will they be soon getting a visit from the Treasury Department?
First they will have to get it authenticated and that is where things could get tricky for them. Since no U. S. coins were made in aluminum at that time it could be an off metal coin from a planchet intended for a foreign coin. The U. S. Mint has struck coins for other countries the first during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876 and continuously up until December 31, 1973. The cent is dated 1974 the year after the official end of striking coins for foreign governments so where did the aluminum planchet come from is a question that will need to be answered. There is a possibility that more coins were struck for other countries as late as 1984 but no records are available to the public to verify that.
It is a known fact that 1974 aluminum cents were struck..... The tricky part, if it is authentic will be whether it is legal to own or not.
Ed records are available. The Mint did strike aluminum coins in that size and weight for Nepal in 1974. Problem is they struck them in San Francisco. Could a Nepal blank somehow have gotten from SF to Denver? The mints did sometimes ship planchets back and forth. Personally I think it is just an off-metal error and has nothing to do with the pattern aluminum issues, in which case it would be perfectly legal to own.
What are "Ed records"? Also, where did you get the information on those Nepal coins being struck at the SF Mint? Do the Mints (or the US Mint Bureau) keep records, stats, or histories of FOREIGN coins minted at the US mints? I have a question about a Foreign coin minted in Philadelphia in 1959. I wrote to the US Mint about it, but if anyone here could share any info on this topic, I'd appreciate it.
Ed Sims said that Mint records on foreign coins struck at the mint after 1973 were not available, I told Ed there were. PM me your email address and I'll send you an Excel file that has all the information on foreign coins struck at the US mint. It contains countries, years, mints, composition, weights, sizes, mintages etc. Took a quick look and in 1959 we struck coins for the Phillipines and Venezuela. Four denominations for the Phillipines and two for Venezuela. All in Philadelphia. Information on the 1974 Nepal coins is in the Excel file. Information in the file is compiled for the Annual Mint reports. (The Annual Reports used to contain a LOT more information than they do today.)
All, I buy storage units in the DC area and come across a few awesome items from time to time. I found this penny wrapped in paper with a few other super old silver dimes and silver dollars. Did they make silver pennies? also was there a lot of fakes produced? I haven't taken it anywhere yet and I don't have a scale to check that little of weight. Any help would be appreciated. I read the article on Yahoo a few days ago and said "hey I have something like that" Here are two pictures
Ok. I need to go buy one of the smaller scales. I only have a mailing one. I was trying to search if there was a bunch of fakes produced. And why would someone produce a fake of a penny that was illegal to own
This coin may not have been made in an attempt to deliberately fool anyone. It could have been a science project in which an extra plating of some metal is added to a coin. I suspect that is what your coin is, although finding its weight would help us say for sure. The mass of one of the aluminum cent specimens was about .93g.
