My fiance and I generally put our excess coins in a big jar and dump them into a change counter once a year. One day I noticed that a penny in my pocket felt different. When I took a closer look, I noticed that the back or reverse side didn’t have the Lincoln Memorial on it. It said "One Cent" and the U.S. Mint date was from the 1920s.
I am not a coin collector but I began to wonder if this old penny was worth more than one cent. I looked to see if the U.S. Mint could tell me and I found out that the government does not provide coin appraisal services. The government does allow you to redeem old coins that are damaged, but only for face value.
I will have to go to private coin evaluators to find the value of the coin. The Department of the Treasury suggests that you go to a couple of different evaluators because coin appraisals can vary between evaluators due to various factors like what they already have in stock. What I’ve discovered on my own is that my penny is a "wheat penny" and it may or may not be worth more than a penny.
Have you ever discovered a valuable coin?