I ask, because I remember a long long time ago, maybe 30 years ago seeing a penny like such and thinking (this is a fake penny) where did it come from ? Not sure if it was that particular penny or not... just remember it being so light weight and looked like play money. The funny thing about you collectors that i am so jealous of is that you held your stuff for so long. I remember seeing so many errors over the years, maybe once a year and thinking, so what... just too bad...
I have seen a coin - NOT the one the mint seized - which, IF it is genuine (and I have no opinion other than that the reported weight was correct which would be an odd fact to have at hand), would be a 2nd 1974D Aluminum cent. I don't know the individual who showed it at coin club, never met him before and don't remember his name. But it was definitely the winner at Show & Tell. I suggested he fly to Paris, have it authenticated at PCGS and sell it at a London auction. But my cat's don't take my advise either...
Judging from what stand the federal government has taken on the aluminum cent (it belongs to us, hand it over) I would not admit to having one if I did.
The Mint had one of these on display at the ANA ANAHEIM SHOW. Charmy had it in her show report posted on the NGC forum.
They were previously available on Alibaba for under $2.00, but not reads unavailable. So expect to run into a few on forums. http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1974...32427946711.html?spm=2114.40010708.4.7.Eg0exy
You would be amazed at the number of people who come up with plated cents and swear up and down that they are way underweight, that turn out to be normal weight when you finally get them to actually put the coin on a scale (Sometimes it takes ten pages or more of comments before we finally get a weight out of them.) I assume any reported supposed off-metal coin is just plated until an accurate weight to two decimal places is provided.
The seized 1974-D aluminum cent was on display earlier this month at the Mint booth in Anaheim. Since it belongs to all Americans, and there's about 300 million of us, I guess getting to watch it for as long as I wanted slowly rotating in its Kointain capsule is about my 1/300,000,000th worth. We know there are a number of Philly mint strikes out there, but the only way to go all commando getting them back would be to impugn members of Congress, who pass the Mint's budget. I dunno, man, not a fight worth picking.
