Environmental Damage after it left the mint. someone may have tried to harshly clean the wheatie. This pretty much kills any collector value. You may want to save The 39-S because it's a wheatie, but otherwise, spend them
Used to be a story that I cannot confirm, but the story has always struck me as making sense..... In the days before mass media, the circus would send people out to the next town for the express purpose of injecting red painted cents into the local economy. People knew if they received a red cent in their change, the circus was coming to town..... That old wheatie appears to have red paint on it and may well fall in that old legend.... Still yet for all numismatic purposes that simply renders the old cent as damaged, but I like the story.
I recall seeing a few cents that were painted red when I was a lot younger than I am now. I'm talking 1960s. I had no idea why. Now I do.
