Expert: Neil S Berman - 3/19/2010

Question
QUESTION: HI,

I have a penny i found. Thought it was a little interesting. Its a 1975 penny with MS engraved inside the state of mississippi next to lincolns head. Just wondering if its a known coin, or someone just randomly engraved it. The engraving looks to be done very well so I don't suspect someone randomly engraved MS with the perfect state of mississippi on a random penny.

How much would this be to a coin collector? The condition of the coin is expected for a 1975 penny, fair cond. i'd say.

thanks
adam-

ANSWER: This engraving was added outside of the US Mint and holds no interest to a US coin collector. Sorry.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: So your saying that someone took a random penny, and engraved the state of mississippi and the letters MS perfectly into this random penny? Do coins worth money come from only mistakes that the US Mint caused?

Answer
Actually, I didn't say that at all. They are mass manufactured, and are then often sold in complete sets of all 50 states, but they are not sold to coin collectors, more like on Home Shopping and the like. You are correct when you say coins altered outside of the mint are not often collected by coin collectors.