Expert: Jim Lawniczak - 1/17/2008

Question
One day at work, I received a penny in some change. First off, it is a 2000 Denver. But it caught my eye because of its color. It is not the "copper" color of a regular penny, but it is more of a gold color, like the new dollar coins, only a bit more yellow.
This is not the only curious detail about this penny. Just above the date, it has the outline of the state of California "stamped" on it with the letters "CA" inside the outline.
I have been searching the internet to try to figure out what this penny is, but I have had no luck. I find it weird that it has both a strange "stamp" and a strange color.

Thanks in advance.

Stuart


Answer
Stuart, thanks for your good description of this piece.  I have been getting other descriptions of "gold" colored cents, and thought they were probably just a bit unusually toned or uncirculated in different ways than people were used to (uncirculated copper can range from more yellowish to more redish and is not always the same color).  But now I am convinced that someone is coloring these pieces.

Here's what's happening.  Back in the 1970s, someone stamped sets of stamps with all 50 states' maps on them plus the state postal code.  So there would have been one back then on a 1970 era cent with the Calif. map and CA on it.  They were sold as novelty items, I think some in packs for all states, for about a dollar each.  They have essentially no resale value and the collecting community does not really hold them in high regard as they are novelty pieces not minit products.  If you go to www.ebay.com and search for something like stamped cents or stamped penny, or maybe state on cent, and the like, you may see someone trying to sell one or more.  Other types were a picture of a pipe (Lincoln smoking a pipe) and a stamped picture of Kennedy.

What it now looks like is that in 2000, someone repeated the sales idea, but also went further and colored the cent, as well as stamping the map on it.  Coloring coins is a strategy to make a novelty that can sell.  I would guess that the seller of these may have asked more than a dollar for the piece, but I don't know.  Hope this helped, Jim Lawniczak