My son and I were looking at an old penny today.
He wants to know:
When did they first ever make pennies?
How old would one have to be to be valuable?
Well, I dont know when they were first made, but I do know that steel pennies from WWII do have some value, as do ones with ONE CENT and wheat printed on the back, though the value is not much to speak of.
“Pennies” in the US were among the first coins minted, properly called “Cents”, specifically “Large Cents” as they were about the size of the modern Sackie dollars.
Value wise, a coin does not need to be old to be valuable. In fact, ancient roman coins are sold by the pound very cheaply. Steel Cents are common and not particularly valuable. Rarity alone doesn’t make coins valuable either. Demand coupled with rarity will make a coin high priced.
Certain pennies are valuable, say the 1955 “double die” lincoln penny, or a copper 1943 lincoln cent.
Some history of coin minting in the U.S
Values of collectable coins.
The first “large cents” (as mentioned in Tedster’s post) were minted in 1793, but there were some “Fugio” cents minted as early as 1787. These were the first ever minted coins in the US. The Fugios are worth $1000+ in very fine condition. The first large cents are worth $100-$25,000 depending on condition and rarity.
The first cents the size of the current penny were the Flying Eagle cents which began production in 1857. Indian Head pennies were minted from 1859-1909 and then the Lincoln Head pennies from 1909 to the present.
Value of all coins, just as with all things, varies by demand, rarity, and condition.
The most valuable regular issue (regular issue meaning ignoring mint errors such as double die or mistaken mint marks, etc) Lincoln penny is the famed 1909-S VDB. Only 484,000 were produced and caused some controversy due to the designer’s initials (Victor D. Brenner) being featured so prominently on the reverse side of the coin. This was considered offensive (or at least poor taste) and the initials were quickly removed for subsequent production through the rest of 1909 until 1918. Today you can find the initials on the obverse just below Lincoln’s shoulder, sort of in the gap between Lincoln and the coin’s rim at the 7 o’clock position.