This Super Expensive Penny Is Allegedly Still In Circulation

Turns out, some wheat pennies are worth a lot of bread. It might have been a minute since you've spent your pennies on something and used actual, physical pennies to pay for it. However, some valuable old pennies are still in circulation today — as are the myths about just how valuable they are.

Wheat pennies, wheat cents, wheat backs, and Lincoln wheat pennies are all roses by any other name. This particular type of "wheat" penny coin is so-called for the ears of wheat printed on the reverse (tails) side, with a profile of President Abraham Lincoln on the obverse (heads) side. The humble wheat penny might make you go "ooh, look, a wheat penny!" when getting change at the grocery store, but these coins don't usually make the ranks of valuable coins you might have lying around.

Lincoln wheat pennies were produced and issued from 1909 to 1958, making their not-so-gluten-free design run the longest in U.S. coin history. Their long, wave-of-grain filled life also makes them fairly common, as far as coins go. Even though most Lincoln wheat pennies are worth just the simple, single cent stamped on their reverse sides, their vaguely old-timey nature has delighted beginner coin collectors for ages. Some Lincoln wheat pennies, however, are worth a million — or at least a small fortune more than their face value.

While the context behind a coin is what really makes certain Lincoln wheat pennies valuable, you can break the wheat penny coin collector's top criteria down fourfold: popularity, rarity, material, and mistake. Wheat cents made during years of low mintage (or low production) are worth more than others. This seems to especially true of cents issued during the Great Depression and pre-war years, when usual materials used by the U.S. Mint for coins were being conserved. Lincoln wheat pennies struck with steel (or even bronze) command top dollar with collectors.

Errors made by the U.S. Mint, like striking a coin without a mint mark (like this rare dime worth a ton), can also make the humble wheat penny's value increase. Some valuable wheat cents were even struck twice, as with the 1955 Doubled Die wheat cent. The Philadelphia mint responsible for the coin didn't realize their die was creating a dizzying double-print effect, as well as higher value.

Certain coin dates are more storied with collectors than others, which drives up a wheat cent's price, even if the coin itself is not exactly rare, and therefore, still possibly in circulation. Circulation takes a lot of value out of a coin, as well, so if you do think you have your hands on a valuable wheat cent, make sure to have it graded by a professional so you can be clear on what your collectible money is actually worth.

Almost endless articles proclaiming the existence of still-circulating Lincoln wheat pennies valued at $10 million, $20 million, $51 million, and even $2.2 billion float around the internet today. Fabled values of Lincoln wheat cents turn up like a bad penny. Still, there are some examples of truly fantastic finds, even if their final auction number isn't in the high millions.

In 1947, teenaged Don Lutes found a rare 1943 copper Lincoln wheat cent in his change after buying lunch at his high school cafeteria. It was known even in 1947 that the 1943 pennies, mistakenly pressed in copper instead of zinc-coated steel as the war effort required, would be worth something. Lutes' estate discovered how much decades later, when the coin was put up for auction after his death in 2019. The penny sold for just over $200,000 at auction, the proceeds of which Lutes left to his local public library.

1944 steel wheat pennies are also highly valuable, though possibly exceedingly rare in these days. Very briefly, a very small run of pennies were struck using steel in 1943. But by 1944, production switched back to using bronze alloy – except for two steel pennies, which mistakenly made it through production. One of these exceedingly rare steel pennies fetched just over $400,000 at auction in 2018, and another one is supposedly out there in the great wide world. Next time you're near your wallet, make sure to check your spare change for a surprising chunk of change in a very lucky penny.