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A rare Lincoln penny up for auction could sell for $1 million or more

Posted at 2:37 PM, Jan 09, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-09 14:40:26-05

A penny is only worth a cent, but not one found in Massachusetts in 1947.

Fewer than 20 of the rare 1943 Lincoln pennies were ever made-- and that was due to an error.

In 1943, during World War II, pennies were supposed to be made of steel because copper was needed for other uses. But a handful of the coins were mistakenly pressed with copper and Don Lutes Jr. discovered one of them in his change from his Massachusetts high school lunch in the forties.

He kept it in his collection since then, but passed away in September.

The penny is now up for auction and as of Wednesday morning the current bid was $120,000. The auction for the rare coin is slated to end on Thursday.

A similar penny sold for $1.7 million in 2010.