1974 Aluminum Penny
 

Not a joke, a friend found a 1974 non-magnetic aluminum penny. Anyone know anything about this ?

He has read loads of google stuff, & one is on eBay bidding @ $20. But some of the google links say this may be quite valuable if it is legal to possess ?

Modern pennies are made of zinc with a copper plating. Maybe his isn't aluminum but zinc without the plating.(deplated ?) Zinc is non-magnetic.

I have a 1991 silver penny. Been sitting in my desk for over 20 years. It is non-magnetic. Just never bothered to check into how it became silver.
Took this pic this morning.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...0d91cc89e9.jpg

Sounds like he found something very rare.

And according to WIKI not legal to sell, property of the US gov. Not legal tender either. So evidently if it was legal to sell it it is worth over $250,000 and now the Secret Service is looking for it, be careful talking about it.

Thanks all, I'll let him know...................

It's true that it's not legal to posses. However the government will not "come after him" in an aggressive way. They will ask for it back if they are aware of it, and of course if it's real, but he won't be in any real trouble. Any tender not officially released to the public is the property of the US Mint. That said this needs to be authenticated and appraised before anything else is done. Until that happens it's just someone on the Internet making an unsubstantiated claim.

In the eyes of the owner, The US Mint, it is a slug of aluminum worth less than a cent. The government is doing every thing it can to keep that value with the threat of confiscation.

I like the US Capitol cops explanation; "it fell off the back of a truck". Very Joe Pesci.
Amazing that people go to jail for lying to an FBI agent about things that are legal, but a Congressman or Senator just says "I have no recollection of that coin being in my pocket for the last 20 years".

The one on Ebay sold yesterday for $52.00 + $10.00 shipping

Thanks all again, more good info to pass along... All vaild points for sure.

Yes it would need to be authenticated and appraised.

From something I read, any pennies made prior to 1986 were solid copper. The issue began in early 1970's when copper prices were raising more than the cost of a penny's value. Thus the experiment into aluminum.

That's why I would be skeptical that the supposedly 1974 penny would be zinc. Plus I don't think zinc is silver.

I saw that ebay coin sell for $52. That coin was not authenticated.