Rare Coins Worth Money

Wouldn't it be a dream come true to find an old piggy bank in your attic filled with rare coins worth millions? Let's be honest, that's not a very likely situation to happen. Nevertheless, the United States Mint has been producing American coinage since 1794, so it's not entirely impossible.

Gold and silver were basic metal compositions until the 20th century during the bimetallic standard. Gold was only banned from coinage after Executive Order 6102 in 1933, and Silver would go on as commodity money in the U.S. until the early 1970s. So, it is not entirely crazy to assume you could find some coins worth money at the back of an old drawer or in your grandparent's safe deposit box.

Rarity & Value

The connection between how rare and, as a consequence, how valuable a coin is, is as simple to understand as the law of supply and demand. Numismatists all over the world look for and compete to obtain the rarest specimens to survive the passing of time and the perils of circulation.

So, the more unique and historically rich a coin is, the more valuable you can expect it to be. They might be one of the first specimens of silver coins ever produced by the US Mint, or they might have belonged to a King of Egypt’s private collection.

There are different reasons why a coin should be that appealing to avid coin collectors, but rarity, in other words, the number of surviving examples of that specific mintage, is arguably the most important one. If a lot of people want something that is scarce in the world, you can expect high prices for it. In other words, rarity will not be the decisive factor if the demand for it is not high as well.

Take into consideration a regular strike 1799 Draped Bust Silver Dollar. It had a mintage of 423,515, which was pretty high at the time and has a survival rate of approximately 8,000 specimens. On the other hand, an 1840 Liberty Head Quarter Eagle had a mintage of only 18,859 and a survival rate of only 80 across all grades. Although the 1840 Quarter Eagle is rarer, its record price was $31,625 in 2011. A considerable amount indeed, but not as much as the record sale for the less rare 1799 Silver Dollar of $822,500! The possible explanation is that many more people collect Silver Dollars than they do Quarter Eagles.

Rare US Coins

1976 B-2 Quarter Dollar - $1.5million

A coin collector got this coin for a bargain in the 1930s

There are plenty examples in the past of coins skyrocketing and coin collectors making a huge profit.

One example is when collector Eric P. Newman purchased a 1796 B-2 Quarter Dollar for $100 in the 1930s.

That same quarter then sold for $1.5million in 2013 - which was the largest ever paid for a 25 cent coin at the time.

This was the first quarter dollar ever produced.

"This coin did not have a denomination indicator such as "25 C." or "Quarter Dollar," USA Coin Book (USACB) wrote in a description of the coin.

"So the denomination was simply discerned by the diameter size of the coin."

1943 Lincoln bronze/copper penny - $204,000

Just 20 of these coins were minted in 1943

Another example was 1943 Lincoln penny, which was found by a Massachusetts man more than 70 years ago in his lunch money.

The coin wound up selling for $204,000 in an auction in 2019.

This was of course the Bronze/Copper Lincoln wheat cent, which is one of the rarest coins in existence.

This is because all of the coins produced in 1943 were supposed to be made out of steal.

There have been said to be just around 20 of the Bronze/Copper Lincoln wheat cent minted in 1943.

1932 D Washington Quarter - $13,573

The D quarter is the most valuable one from 1932

Of course, there are some other valuable coins including the 1932 Washington quarter.

This is worth up to $13,573 if you happen to find one with Denver mintage (“D”) in “Uncirculated (MS-65)” condition, according to USA Coin Book.

The D and the San Fransisco mintage from the 1932 happen to be the only two Washington quarters with mintages under 1million.

“Over the past century, certain quarters have increased by as much as seven times their original value,” Chad Eicher, owner of Metal Pursuits told The Sun.

“Whereas silver dollars from the 1960s only valued about double their worth during that decade!”

Conclusion

BELIEVE it or not, some pennies could be quite valuable if you come across the right one.

Although fewer Americans are using minted change for purchases, rare coins are selling online for thousands.

Many of those coins include pennies featuring 16th president Abraham Lincoln on the front side, which isn’t anything unusual to most Americans.

However, there are unique elements to some of them including errors and low mintages they make them worth a ton of cash.

If you do happen to find what you believe to be a rare coin – make sure you research it and determine what the value might be.