You know all that change jingling around in your pocket? Have you ever stopped to look through it? You could be carrying more money in your pocket than you think! There are many old coins worth money (more than face value) out there that you should keep!
As a side note, If you're trying to get your kids or grandkids into coin collecting, this is often the best jumping off point for beginning. Sit down with them, and share the excitement of going through the change jar to see if there's anything cool! You could even plant some wheatbacks or mercury head dimes in there for a surprise.
Certain coins over the years can be quite valuable; coin collectors look out for and will pay good money for error coins, and rare coins that are hard to find. So dump out your change jar, and let’s see if we can find 5 of the most valuable coins in circulation.
1. 1982 No Mint Mark Roosevelt Dime
We'll start off with a valuable dime in circulation!
This is an interesting coin, at this time all coins produced in the Philadelphia Mint had a “P” mint mark.
In 1982, the Mint employees mistakenly struck Roosevelt dimes without the mint mark! That’s alright though, mistakes happen, and this way it gives us coin collectors coins to look out for! Just exactly how many of these coins were produced is unknown, but we do know that about 10,000 of them have been identified over the years!
You could earn nearly $300 from finding a 1982 No Mint mark Roosevelt dime! That's a coin that would help pay the bills right?
2. 2005-D Speared Bison Jefferson Nickel
Next up we have a rare circulated error coin nickel.
The most modern valuable coin on our list today is the 2005-D speared bison Jefferson nickel. This is an error coin that was produced due to a very deep scratch on the die when the coins were struck. The scratch makes it appear as though the bison has been speared through the belly.
Take a close look at all the 2005 nickels you come across! You could earn an extra $1,000 from this rare coin!
3. 1955 Doubled Die Lincoln Wheat Penny
The 1955 doubled die penny. The most famous doubled die Lincoln penny in the series is another valuable error coin you can sometimes still find in circulation.
This coin was mistakenly created by a misalignment of the die and the hub in the minting process. Remember those old cigarette vending machines they used to have in all the bars? Most of these pennies made their way into circulation through those machines!
At the time, those vending machines only accepted quarters, but the cigarettes were only .23 cents so the cigarette company had to put two cents in the packs as change. This is how most of the error coins were found.
The doubling on these coins mainly occurs on the letters and numbers and is very easy to see without a magnifying glass. The doubling is most obvious on the word “LIBERTY”, the date, and the motto “IN GOD WE TRUST”.
This coin is very commonly counterfeited so if you do find one, getting it authenticated by a grading company like PCGS is strongly recommended.
If your coin is authentic and in “Extremely Fine” condition, you could get around 1,800 for it! However, the highest recorded auction for this coin was a MS65RB condition coin that sold for $32,400 in 2020!
4. 1943 Lincoln Head Copper Penny
In the 1940s, copper was needed for the war effort so all pennies were struck in steel instead of copper. However, a batch of copper pennies was mistakenly minted in 1943. There are very few of these valuable and extremely rare pennies that made it out of the mint and into circulation, which means the ones that are found are worth, well, a pretty penny!
You could get up to $10,000 from one of these coins!
This is definitely one of the coins to look out for!
5. 1969-S Lincoln Cent With Doubled Die Obverse
America’s Most Wanted coin. No, really! This is the only coin to have ever been featured on America’s “Most wanted” list of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Technically though, the coin on the list is referring to a batch of counterfeit coins that were made by counterfeiters Roy Gray, and Morton Goodman. In 1969, they began to circulate fake doubled die 1969 pennies. This quickly attracted the attention of the authorities, and the coin was put onto the “Most Wanted” list.
Around the same time, or shortly after in 1970, Cecil Moorhouse and Bill Hudson discovered the first authentic 1969-s doubled die Lincoln cents. Unfortunately, during the Secret Service’s search for the fake Lincoln cents, they came across quite a few authentic doubled die coins. These were ordered to be destroyed, which made an already rare coin rarer.
If you happen to stumble across one of these--though there are only 40 known in existence--it could net you around $40,000, with the highest amount this extremely rare coin ever sold for being $126,000!
