The 16-year-old boy looked down at the coin he held in his hand. For some reason, he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to it than met the eye. If he was wrong, he was a fool. But if he was right, what he had found was immensely valuable.
But at that moment, Don Lutes Jr. never imagined that it would take 70 years to make them believe him.
Don Lutes Jr. was 16 years old and attending Pittsfield High School. One day, he was standing in line at the school cafeteria when he found an unusual-looking coin among the pennies in his lunch money. Trusting his gut-feeling, he decided to hold onto it.
He excitedly showed the coin to his classmates, parents, and teachers… but, to his dismay, everyone dismissed Don’s find. But he would become accustomed to being dismissed.
Born on March 1, 1931, Don Lutes Jr. knew in his heart that he could achieve anything if he put his mind to it. After graduating with flying colors from Pittsfield High School in 1948, he went on to earn a degree in business admin from Babson College.
But Don never forgot where his passion truly lay.
Ever since he was a boy, Don’s favorite pastime was collecting rare and unusual coins. He was obsessed with them. He was fascinated with both foreign and American coins and his love for collecting them prompted him to join the Berkshire Coin Club — of which he was a prominent member for 60 years. His roles at the club included treasurer, historian, and president, and indeed his dedication to the club is one of the reasons it is still going strong today.
But his greatest find also happened to be his first…
There was no doubt in Don’s mind that the mysterious coin he had found in 1947 was his most historic find. Don was only 16 years old at the time — patiently waiting in line at the school cafeteria in Pittsfield High School.
He had his lunch money in his hand and was ready to order his food when he noticed the odd-looking penny. But what was it about this particular coin that made it so special?
The coin, to the untrained eye, looked just like every other coin that was in circulation at the time. One side depicted Abraham Lincoln, and the other side had the words “One Cent, United States Of America” etched into the metal. It didn’t look like anything special.
So, why had young Don gotten so excited about it?
Although Don knew that the coin was special, it wasn’t long before his attention was needed elsewhere. The coin was almost forgotten when Don signed up for the United States Army. He was one of the many men who were forced to leave their friends and family behind to serve his country in the Korean War.
But, years later, experts needed to understand just where that mysterious coin had come from in order to unravel its secrets.
During the Second World War, militaries used copper strategically. Copper was reserved for telephone wires, shell casings, and many other essential items during the war. And, as a result, the Lincoln steel pennies that were minted in 1943 were coated in zinc.
However, mints were still using a small amount of copper for certain coins. Then, the rumors began to fly…
To a collector, errors in the minting process are just as valuable as flawless coins that are rare. Due to these “error” coins’ anomalies and flaws, they are a rare commodity. As soon as a coin with an error leaves the mint undetected and goes into circulation, its value increases.
So, when an error coin remains in circulation for a long period of time, its value increases exponentially.
Soon, legends began to grow about the mythical copper pennies that had gone into circulation in error. “Stories appeared in newspapers, comic books, and magazines and a number of fake copper-plated steel cents were passed off as fabulous rarities to unsuspecting purchasers,” Heritage Auctions wrote.
“Despite the mounting number of reported finds, the Mint steadfastly denied any copper specimens had been struck in 1943.” However, the rumors had gotten the attention of Don Lutes Jr.
Decades after Don had found the coin, he still hung onto it tightly. Even though there were many opportunities for him to let it go, he remained firm in his belief. Many coin collectors made him offers for the coin, but he refused.
At one point, Don even contacted the U.S. Treasury to evaluate the Lincoln penny — but they gave him some bad news.
The U.S. Treasury refused to believe that Don had found a rare copper penny and dismissed it as a fraud. They held onto their familiar refrain: “All pennies struck in 1943 were zinc-coated steel.”
And so, the penny remained in Don’s collection. Until, one day, he was finally vindicated.
Despite the U.S. Treasury declaring Don’s coin a fraud, it would eventually come to pass that the Lincoln penny was confirmed as a true “Holy Grail of mint errors.” Researchers made a breakthrough discovery when they realized that copper planchets had gotten stuck in tote bin doors.
These tote bins were used to feed coins that didn’t make the final press back into the machine…
These coins from the early 1940s had slipped through the net and “became dislodged and were fed into the coin press, along with the wartime steel blanks,” according to Heritage Auctions.
And collectors have dedicated their entire lives to finding these elusive “error coins.”
“Despite relentless searching by eager collectors over a period of more than 70 years, only a handful of legitimate specimens have ever been discovered,” Heritage Auctions wrote.
“PCGS CoinFacts estimates the surviving population at no more than 10-15 examples in all grades. We have compiled a roster of all specimens certified by the two leading grading services below, including an unknown number of resubmissions and crossovers.” So, how much was Don’s coin worth?
When Don Lutes Jr. was admitted to the Fairview Rehabilitation Center in Great Barrington, MA, he knew it was finally time to finally let go of his prized coin collection. His health had been deteriorating and his wife had passed many years before. He had no relatives to pass his beloved coins onto.
But Don still had unfinished business with the Lincoln coin…
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