An example of a 1974-D Aluminum Lincoln Cent will be auction by Heritage Auctions at the Heritage Signature Auction during the Central States Numismatic Society convention near Chicago, April 23 - 27, 2014. The coin will be on displayed at the Long Beach Coin, Currency, Stamp & Sports Collectible Expo, held January 30 - February 1, 2014.
The rare coin owned by California rare coin dealer Michael McConnell, owner of the La Jolla Coin Shop. McConnell purchased it in September 2013 from realtor Randy Lawrence who inherited the coin decades ago from his late father, Harry Edmond Lawrence who served as Deputy Superintendent of the Denver Mint.
"My father, Harry Edmond Lawrence, was Deputy Superintendent of the Denver Mint when the aluminum cent was struck. When he died in 1980, that coin and others he received over the years were in a plastic sandwich bag. I kept them in that bag in my desk for 33 years, and then they were in the trunk of my car for a month when I moved with my two children and my elderly Mother from Denver to Southern California last August," Randy Lawrence explained.
"I had no idea what that penny was worth," he said with a laugh.
The 1974 aluminum cent was a one-cent coin proposed by the United States Mint in 1973. It was composed of an alloy of aluminum and trace metals, and intended to replace the predominantly copper–zinc cent due to the rising costs of coin production in the traditional bronze alloy.
Between October 17, 1973 and March 29, 1974, there were 1,441,039 aluminum cents dated 1974 struck at the Philadelphia Mint. Another 130,128 pieces were struck between April 12 and May 30, 1974. Only one printed reference can be found about any produced at the Denver Mint.
When the proposed aluminum cent was rejected, the Mint recalled and destroyed the examples. A few of the coins were given to members of Congress and other government officials.
On April 1975, "Washington Merry-Go-Round" newspaper columnist Jack Anderson reported that 14 of the 1974-P aluminum cents were missing from Congressional committee members who received them in March 1974 but did not return them to the Treasury Department.
According to a February 21, 1976 story in Numismatic News, The United States government closed its investigation of any missing 1974 aluminum cents by February 1976 having found, in the government's own words "no evidence of criminal intent" by anyone possessing any of the coins.
McConnell and Lawrence now will share proceeds from a planned auction of the coin by Heritage at the Central States Numismatic Society convention in April, and will be making what they describe as a "six figure" donation from the proceeds to help the homeless in the San Diego area.
