May 23 is National Lucky Penny Day

May 23 is National Lucky Penny Day, celebrated to encourage people to appreciate those little moments of good fortune symbolized by finding a penny.

May 23 is National Lucky Penny Day, celebrated to encourage people to appreciate those little moments of good fortune.

But if you find certain pennies, it could be more than just a small stroke of good luck - it’s possible to become a millionaire with just a single coin, thanks to rare pennies that are still in circulation.

A few years ago, man called Don Lutes Jr. rose to fame when he owned a penny that sold for $204,000 at an auction held by Heritage Auctions.

The piece was a 1943 Lincoln bronze cent, a coin that was with the man from 1947 to 2018, when he gave it to the auction house before he died. Proceeds went to the Berkshire Athenaeum Public Library in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where Lutes was born and raised.

Since the news spread around the country, Americans have begun searching their pockets for pennies that could be worth thousands, tens of thousands, or even millions of dollars. How do you know if you have one?

The value of a penny depends on its quality and rarity. The Don Lutes Jr. coin- a bronze Lincoln cent- was sold for such a huge amount because currently, only a handful of these exist. So far, 15 to 20 bronze Lincoln cents have been discovered. The most expensive sold for $1.7 million.

The high value of this coin is due to the fact that the Mint stopped using bronze in pennies to be able to instead use the material for armed struggle. Since then, the manufacture of pennies has been carried out with zinc-coated steel plates, making the bronze Lincoln cent “the most famous error coin in American numismatics”, according to David Stone, coin cataloguer at Heritage Auctions.

Due to its rarity and great value, there are several fakes of the penny circulating in the collectors’ market. Experts recommend carrying out the famous magnet test to corroborate its veracity: if the coin sticks, it is fake because the true coin is made of bronze, which is not magnetic.

So check your pockets, and good luck on National Lucky Penny Day!