Expert: Dan Moore - 9/1/2010

Question
Hi Dan, I found an old penny collection that my grandmother must have started, never finished it.  Anyway I have from 1941 through 1950 (no I do not have the copper '43! already checked that)! I also have a couple 55's, D & S (which I noticed by her little book that the S only ran 44.6 million). I also have here 1 '56, 2 '57's, 2 '58's and 1 59.
The question is, is there anything I should look for on any of these coins to determine if I may have a rare find?  I know absolutely nothing about coins.  I have no idea what it means when you guys are talking about a "mint error", or how I look at the coins to see if I have one of those.
It would sure be nice to find out I have something here that would complete someones collection or better yet a rare coin.  Thanks!

Answer
Shain,

The only thing in those dates is if you possibly have a 1944 D over S mintmark.  Use a magnifier to look at the 1944-D penny to see if it looks like there could be an "S" underneath the "D".  It's quite rare, so you probably don't have one, but if you do it could be worth $15-$25 or more.

Everything else is worth 2-3 cents apiece.

Dan