Whitman Publishing’s 100 Greatest United States Coins series has a total of four editions. This next entry in our blog series covering the compilation is brand new to the series, never having made the list before. With author Jeff Garrett, in addition to help from Ron Guth, we will further inspect this new addition and take you through its rather short lifespan.
#88 – 1974 Aluminum Lincoln Cents (Philadelphia and Denver Issues)
The story of the 1974 aluminum cent is like many United States coins, either a problem that leads to cost saving initiatives or the result of them. In this case, the aluminum cent is a result of it as during the early 1970s, the price of copper was rising so much that the cost of producing cent coins became higher than the face value of them. The United States Mint looked to correct the matter, searching for alternative metal and choosing 96% aluminum. They would begin striking the 1974 cent in late 1973 with the Philadelphia Mint issuing 1,571,167 pieces.
Changing the cent’s composition was a big deal. To help promote the change, various members of the House Banking and Currency Committee were given a small number of coins. However, there were many special interest groups that were never for the idea of the composition change. Among those groups were copper mining and vending machine industries. With the criticism and the fact that copper was on its way down in price, the idea of the aluminum cent was eventually tossed and never revisited.
While many of the coins were destroyed, there were around 100 of the original mintage that were destroyed according to Chief of the Mint’s Internal Audit Staff at the time, William Hubert. The Mint Director at the time requested the return of those coins but nearly a dozen of them were never given back. The FBI was asked to investigate the matter, but the issue was eventually dropped. However, in 2001, an example of the 1974 aluminum cent was revealed and was tied to Albert Toven, a U.S. Capitol police officer. He claimed that the coin was dropped by a Congressman who told Toven to keep the coin, thinking it was a dime. Nothing ever occurred to confiscate the coin.
Many of the coins originally struck were from Philadelphia, but it came out that the Denver Mint apparently minted a small number of the coin when one surfaced in San Diego. The owner of the 1974-D aluminum cent was a former deputy superintendent at the Denver Mint. It was certified by PCGS as genuine, but the event forced the United States Mint to make the ownership of the cent coin illegal for private citizens. They even filed legal action against the owners and the coin, which was placed into auction after its certification, was withdrawn.
One example of the 1974 aluminum cents was donated to the Smithsonian’s National Numismatic Collection. Most likely there are still others out there in private collections, but the fact that they are illegal to own will hinder any resurfacing of the coins.
The 1974 aluminum cent in this fourth edition has a listed historical value in Uncirculated condition at $500,000.
