Trying to see if my coin has value 1968 steel stamped penny

I have what appears to a steel penny year 1968 and has a stamp on it

 

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Your coin is a Masonic counterstamped cent. It is not steel. It was plated after being minted. Looking at ebay recent sales, you "may" get a dollar or two from the right buyer.

 

A lot of folks collect these. There are many different designs. There are some threads about them on this site.

 

Your coin has a Shriner's counterstamp on it, Sorry, but not Masonic symbol.

 

D'oh. My bad.

 

Damaged twice.

 

Meow found one recently that had the state of Illinois stamped on it.

 

Those can still be found on eBay. A long-running gimmick.

 

These counterstamps were created by a retired employee of the Philly Mint.




Chris

 

Oh, so all 50 are possible. A hobby of yours purrhaps?

 

smokin cool coins!!!!

 

No! It's just that this topic comes up a lot. So, when someone posted this image of the state counterstamps, I saved it for times just like this.

Chris

 

Never could tell them apart w/o a scorecard. Something about funny hats and hospitals IIRC.

 

It's known as a novelty coin. Many different designs exist. There is a market for them but they are most a low value. Neat that you found it in change.

Welcome to CT.

 

PS. Not steel but copper. It's been plated to look steel and that is considered damaged.

 

It'll be fun to guess which stamp belongs to which State.

 

No guessing necessary if you know the shape of each state when it is backwards. The only two that might be a toss-up would be Wyoming and Colorado unless you are smart enough to know that...…...

Aw, shucks! I'll let you figure that out.

Chris

 

In the picture it's easy because they are in alphabetical order. On a cent it would be harder, but it appears the stamps are precise enough to tell with careful measurement. The length of the southern border divided by the length of the northern border for the two states is greater for Wyoming than for Colorado because the eastern and western borders are drawn along the lines of longitude (meridians), which come closer together as they approach the poles.