991001 A Penny's Worth-Michael

A Penny's Worth
A one-of-a-kind penny sells for more than a million dollars
BY SUZANNE ZIMBLER

Some people say pennies bring good luck. Others say pennies are not worth saving. After all, a penny is only worth a cent. But one unusual penny turned out to be worth a lot more when a coin collector paid $1.7 million for it earlier this month.
The coin is one of a kind. It is the only penny that the Denver mint made out of copper, instead of steel, in 1943. Because it is unique, it is also very valuable. No penny has ever sold for this much money.
The Changing Penny
The Lincoln penny first appeared in 1909. For 34 years, the one-cent coin was made out of copper. Then, in 1943, the penny changed. World War II was going on, and copper was needed for equipment. So for one year, pennies were made out of steel instead. At least most of them were.
A small handful of coins were made out of leftover copper. There are three main mints or places where coins are made, in the United States. Of the known copper pennies from 1943, twelve were made in the Philadelphia mint, and five were made in the San Francisco mint. Only one was made in the Denver mint.
Nobody knows for sure why a copper penny was made at the Denver mint in 1943, coin-dealer Andy Skrabalak told TFK. "There's a rumor that a mint employee [made] the coin in the middle of the night," he said.
A Special Set
The coin collector who bought the $1.7 million penny wants to remain anonymous, or unknown. But the reason for his purchase is known. He already had two copper pennies from 1943—one from the San Francisco mint and one from the Philadelphia mint. To complete the set, he needed the Denver penny. The three coins will go on display at a rare-coin convention in Tampa, Florida, this January.
The collector who sold the penny is also keeping his identity a secret. It took four years to convince him to give up the rare coin. Now that he finally sold it, he is donating all of the money to charity.

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/news/story/0,28277,2021923,00.html

991001 A Penny's Worth-Michael
A penny is just only a coin, it is not very important to people. A penny just worth 1 cent but a coin collector spends 1. 7 million dollars to buy a penny that worth one cent! Why did the coin collector do this? It is because that this penny is a very important to coin collectors they wanted to buy this special penny. This penny is the only copper penny that is made from Denver. There are three main mints that make coin they are, “Philadelphia mint”, “San Francisco mint” and “Denver mint”. The only eighteen copper coins are made from these three mints. Twelve of them were made from Philadelphia, five of them were made from San Francisco and the last one is made from Denver. One of the copper coins that cost 1.7 million is the one is from Denver. It was made in 1943. The value of a coin depends how rare it is if a coin is made from 2000 years ago, it might be very valuable. Now the American pennies are made of 97.5% of zinc and 2.5% of copper coated outside of the coin. I think these coins are very special. Maybe I can collect some coins too.