RAY: How you doing?

I have a coin I think you might be interested in.

RICK: OK.

RAY: It's a steel penny.

Are you familiar with those?

RICK: Yes, I am.

Whoa.

It's a 1944 steel penny.

That is really neat.

I know there's less than 100 of them in existence.

Well, from my research, there's less than 30

that exist.

RICK: OK.

You know, I own a pawn shop and I deal in,

like, a gazillion different things,

so I can't know everything, even though my kids

tell me I'm a know-it-all.

[laughs]

RAY: I'm coming to the pawn shop today

to sell a 1944 steel penny.

This is a very rare coin.

It was given to me as a gift for my 70th birthday.

I know I don't look 70 years old,

but I am as old as this coin.

RICK: It's amazing.

This is a really, really weird coin.

This coin isn't supposed to exist.

It was--

RAY: That's correct.

RICK: You know, World War II happens along.

I mean, just everything was rationed.

Bacon was rationed.

And the US government came along and says,

hey, you know, we make tens of millions of pennies every year.

Basically told the US Mint, you have

to make cents out of something else,

because copper is a war metal.

So they started making the cents during 1943 out

of steel that were zinc-plated, and everyone absolutely hated

them.

People were confusing the steel cent for a nickel or a dime--

A dime.

RICK: So in '44, we stopped making the steel pennies.

But when you're making tens of millions of cents,

you know, steel bends and stuff like that.

And they think that, like, some of the blanks

got, like, stuck in the corners and things like that.

And when they pouring them out into the machines,

a few of these got made.

This coin is one of the great mistakes of the US Mint.

And in general, when the United States Mint

makes a mistake on a coin, that coin is

gonna be worth a lot of money.

How much are you asking for this?

$102,000.

RICK: Whoa.

I am gonna call in a friend, look this thing over 100%.

You know what I mean?

For--

For 102%.

RICK: 102%, yeah.

[laughs] Um, this is pretty amazing.

DAVE: These 1944 steel cents and the 1943 copper cents

are probably the most famous errors of the 20th century

from the United States Mint.

And you would not believe how many people

have dug through mounds and mounds of pocket change trying

to find one of these because if you find one, it's a gold mine.

And we're looking at one of them right now.

Yeah you are, yes.

RICK: So how many of those actually

got out into circulation?

DAVE: Well, that's a big question because these were

struck at all three mints--

Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco.

They struck-- oh, it was something

like 2 billion cents in '43 and '44 at the three mints.

And the total population of off-metal strikes is about 60.

And most of them were struck at Philadelphia, like this one.

May represent something like half the known population.

However, it's still a rare coin.

Yeah, and if there's only 30 of them

out of a couple billion-- DAVE: Yeah.

RICK: --then it's pretty rare.

It's a very rare coin.

RICK: So what do you think this would go for?

DAVE: Approximately $30,000.

And--

That seems awfully low to me.

It's a public auction, both of them.

That's OK, but you don't necessarily have to bring

this coin to a public auction.

DAVE: No, but public auctions are actually

where the most realistic prices are

set because every major collector in the world

gets those catalogs because these

are high profile auctions.

There's many sites that value that coin a lot higher--

DAVE: Right.

--than that number.

But the auctions are very clear in determining

the value of these coins.

OK. All right.

Have a good one, Dave. - All righty.

Thanks.

RAY: The value of $30,000 for this coin is extremely low.

This is probably one of the rarest

penny coins in existence.

I don't know where the expert came up with that value.

It is what it is.

For this thing, I would give you, like--

I would give you $25,000 for it.

No.

I'm not sure you know what you have here.

RICK: Well, I know exactly what I have.

No.

I have something that I would probably sell

between $30,000 and $35,000.

RAY: There's none for sale though.

There's none of these for sale.

This is the one.

RICK: OK.

I-- if you want--

This is the only-- this is the only

one in the state in Nevada.

Maybe, but it's still what it is.

What's the lowest you'd go?

You know, I'd drop it down to the minimum

that it's valued at, about $75,000.

RICK: Not gonna happen.

RAY: Then we will not be able to make a deal.

Have a good one, though. Thanks for stopping by.

RAY: You too.

No problem.

I think the offer of $25,000 is ridiculously low.

But I'll just keep it in the family,

and somebody eventually will sell it for a lot more

than I'm being offered today.