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Which Pennies Are Worth Money? The Short, Honest List
Probably not yours. But maybe.
Every few months a headline promises that the penny in your cup holder is worth a fortune. A handful of pennies really are. Treasury estimates there are about 114 billion pennies in existence, and the famous rarities below are counted in the dozens or the hundreds. So the odds are bad. They are not zero, which is the whole appeal.
Quick answer: Almost every penny is worth one cent. The ones worth real money are mostly mint mistakes: the 1943 copper cent, the 1944 steel cent, the 1955 and 1969-S doubled dies, and the 1992 Close AM. A magnet, a gram scale and a magnifier rule out most false alarms. Anything that passes should go to a grading service such as PCGS or NGC before anyone talks about money. Prices below are from the PCGS Price Guide as of October 2026.
First, the honest part
The PCGS Price Guide lists average dealer asking prices for coins PCGS has already graded and sealed. Its own notes add a telling detail. For coins valued under $10, the listed price is really the value of an ungraded coin, because PCGS grading fees cost more than those coins are worth.
That is where most old pennies live. As of October 2026, the guide lists an uncirculated, still-red 1956 or 1957 wheat cent at about $3, and a circulated 1943 steel cent at about $1. Wheat cents, the Lincoln cents of 1909 through 1958 with wheat stalks on the back, are fun to sort. A few dates are scarce, and the rest mostly price in single dollars even in nice condition. The real money is in a short list of mistakes.
1943 copper: the famous one
In 1943 the Mint made cents from zinc-coated steel to save copper for the war. Philadelphia alone struck more than 684 million of them, according to PCGS, so steel cents are common. The rare ones are 1943 cents struck on the old copper alloy blanks. PCGS believes stray 1942 blanks were left in the bottom of bins and worked their way into the presses. It counts roughly 15 to 17 known from Philadelphia, six confirmed from San Francisco, and a single one from Denver.
The guide lists a Philadelphia 1943 bronze cent at about $235,000 in extremely fine condition (graded XF40). The auction record on its PCGS CoinFacts page is $372,000, for one graded MS62 that sold at Heritage Auctions in February 2021. An old rumor said Henry Ford would trade a new car for one. PCGS says he never made that offer.
PCGS lists the checks, and they are simple:
- Magnet. A real one does not stick. If yours sticks, it is a steel cent with copper plating.
- Weight. A real one weighs about 3.11 grams. A plated steel cent weighs about 2.70.
- The 3. It must match the 3 on a genuine 1943 cent, because people file 1948 cents into fakes.
- VDB. The designer’s initials must be on the bottom edge of Lincoln’s shoulder. Altered 1913 cents do not have them.
1944 steel: the mistake in reverse
In 1944 the Mint went back to copper alloy cents. A few were struck on steel blanks anyway. PCGS says the blanks were either leftovers from 1943 or blanks meant for Belgian 2 franc coins, which the Mint was making that year. Its experts estimate 25 to 30 survive from Philadelphia.
The guide lists one at about $38,500 graded AU50. The CoinFacts auction record is $180,000, for an MS64 at Heritage Auctions in June 2021. The test is the 1943 test backwards: a 1944 cent that sticks to a magnet deserves a closer look. Then it deserves an expert.
1955 doubled die: the cigarette cent
A doubled die is a die made with a doubled image, so every coin it strikes shows the doubling. PCGS explains the 1955 one as a slight rotation between impressions while the working die was being made. The date, LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST all show a wide spread that PCGS calls obvious, and it is. The letters look like a double exposure.
PCGS says about 40,000 were struck and around 24,000 escaped into circulation, mostly around Boston and Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and Endicott, Johnson City and Binghamton, New York. Many went out through cigarette machines. A pack cost 23 cents, the machines could not make change, so distributors tucked two pennies inside the cellophane.
The guide lists brown examples at about $2,000 in XF40 and $3,500 in MS60. The top of the market is another planet. PCGS notes that the Stewart Blay example, graded MS65+ Red, brought $287,156.25 at GreatCollections in January 2023.
1969-S doubled die: the one the Secret Service chased
In 1969, counterfeiters Roy Gray and Morton Goodman made fake 1969 doubled die cents and sold them by the thousands, PCGS recounts. Both went to prison. When genuine 1969-S doubled dies turned up in 1970, the Secret Service assumed some of them were fakes too and ordered them destroyed. PCGS believes fewer than 100 genuine ones were made.
Check for the S, for San Francisco. The counterfeits in that case were sold as 1969 doubled dies, and the genuine rarity is the 1969-S. The guide lists brown examples at about $13,500 in XF40 and $28,500 in MS60. In 2007 a collector found one in an unsearched roll, and it sold for $126,500 in January 2008. The record on CoinFacts is $601,875, for an MS66 Red at GreatCollections in January 2023.
1992 Close AM: still hiding in change
This one costs nothing to check. Flip a 1992 cent over and find the A and M in AMERICA. On a normal 1992 cent there is a visible gap between the bottoms of the two letters. If they touch, PCGS says you may have a Close AM, struck with a back design intended for 1993 cents, probably in late 1992 test runs. A second sign is the designer’s initials, FG, sitting closer to the right side of the Lincoln Memorial than usual.
More than 4 billion cents were struck at each of Philadelphia and Denver in 1992, and as of 2021 PCGS had graded fewer than 20 Philadelphia Close AMs. The guide lists brown examples at about $1,200 in AU50 and $2,600 in MS60. The Denver version, marked with a D, lists at about $2,100 in MS60. A Philadelphia example graded MS67 Red sold for $25,850 at Heritage Auctions in 2017.
1982: copper or zinc?
In 1982 the Mint switched from 95 percent copper to copper-plated zinc, because copper had made the cent cost more than a cent to produce, PCGS notes. NGC reports that the switch happened at different times at different mints, and the Mint also changed the size of the date that year, so seven combinations were made for circulation. The copper ones weigh 3.11 grams. The zinc ones weigh 2.50.
A gram scale sorts them in seconds. Sort them for curiosity, though, not for rent. The guide lists a 1982 copper large date in brown at about $1, even graded MS65.
Smaller finds worth a look
The same guide lists a few other varieties worth knowing by name. Approximate values as of October 2026, for brown coins:
- 1972 doubled die obverse: about $110 in XF40.
- 1983 doubled die reverse: about $35 in XF40.
- 1984 doubled die obverse: about $20 in AU50.
- 1995 doubled die obverse: about $3 in MS60. A real find, and still less than a sandwich.
- 1909-S VDB: the key date of the wheat cents, about $875 even in heavily worn Good condition. More on spotting fakes of it is in what to do with your pennies.
How to check a penny without fooling yourself
- Magnet: steel sticks, and a genuine copper cent does not.
- Scale: about 3.11 grams for copper cents, 2.50 for zinc, 2.70 for steel. The full weight math is in how many pennies are in a pound.
- Magnifier: read the date, the mint mark, the letters and the initials.
- Experts: PCGS calls authentication mandatory for a 1943 copper cent. The same goes for anything else on this list.
- Kiosks: Coinstar says its machines cannot accept 1943 steel pennies and may not return them. Pull them out first.
If the whole jar comes up empty
Then you have a jar of perfectly good money, which is not nothing. Chris, an individual, is asking everyone on Earth to voluntarily send him exactly one cent. Any cent. He is not checking the date. The multiplication is on the math page, and the fine print is in the FAQ.
Ordinary pennies welcome. Send one here.
Not affiliated with PCGS, NGC, Coinstar, the U.S. Mint or the U.S. Treasury. Prices are PCGS Price Guide values for PCGS-graded coins as of October 2026 and will change. Nothing here is an appraisal or investment advice.
Sources: Treasury penny FAQs, PCGS Price Guide, what the prices mean, PCGS Price Guide, wheat reverse Lincoln cents, PCGS Price Guide, modern Lincoln cents, PCGS CoinFacts, 1943 steel cent, PCGS CoinFacts, 1943 bronze cent, PCGS CoinFacts, 1944 steel cent, PCGS CoinFacts, 1955 doubled die, PCGS CoinFacts, 1969-S doubled die, PCGS CoinFacts, 1992 Close AM, PCGS, The 1992 Close AM Lincoln Cents (2021), PCGS CoinFacts, 1982 bronze cent, NGC, The Transitional Cents of 1982, Coinstar help center.
Meet the penny jar ↗By Chris. All articles