The Great Coin Hunt: Could North Dakota Residents Find Hidden Gems Worth Thousands?

You never know what items sitting around your house could actually be worth a lot of money. As it turns out, some rare pennies are worth tons of cash. You might be surprised how much these are worth, too, as the most valuable penny of 2024 is worth more than $400,000. So, make note that if you have these special pennies, it could be like winning the lottery. How fun would it be to actually find one? Then you have to decide what to do—keep it or sell it?

Unveiling Hidden Treasures: Cointrackers.com's 2024 List of Most Valuable Pennies

I have actually collected coins for a few years, but these have not popped up on my radar until now.  Cointrackers.com has put together a new list of the most valuable pennies for 2024. They note that the coin values and how much they’re worth are “not based on common errors like double dies, but rather coins that were issued into circulation as is.” They also state that “as of now, their database consists almost entirely of coins from 1880s-2024, as they try to focus mostly on coins that were readily accessible and possibly still in circulation.” I found their website easy to use, and extremely informative. If you're remotely thinking of collecting coins, it's well worth your time to check it out.

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Age Equals Value: Cointrackers.com's Spectrum of Valuable Coins from 1857 to 1944

As you may have guessed, older coins are worth more. That’s not always the case, but it’s usually older coins are the most rare. That said, Cointrackers.com’s list of valuable coins fall between the years 1857 and 1944. The oldest coin is the No. 3 most valuable in the U.S., which is an 1856 Flying Eagle Penny worth $25,000. The newest coin is actually the most valuable, but 1944 isn’t new. That’s still an old coin. The 1944 Steel Wheat Penny is worth an impressive $408,000. That’s seriously better than winning the lottery. The second most valuable penny in 2024 is the 1943 Copper Wheat Penny at $250,000. This list has coins that range in value from $1,200 to $408,000. The most valuable coins are “wheat pennies,” which by definition are “a U.S. one-cent coin produced from 1909 to 1959, having a portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the obverse and a pair of ears of wheat on the reverse,” according to YourDictionary.com.

So, as you start your spring cleaning projects, be sure to look inside all the folds of your couches and check in all those old clothes set aside for donation to see if you have any of these rare pennies around. Happy hunting!