Expert: Dan Moore - 12/10/2007

Question
Hi, I have a question about a penny that I came across. It's a 1976 penny in great condition.  The odd thing is on the face of the penny, where there is an outline of the state of Louisiana engraved right above the year 1976. There is also an LA inside of it, facing sideways. It looks almost perfect, except that that tiny area is kind of dented in ever so slightly, and the last A in America looks like it's been pressed in. Would you have any idea as to what I'm looking at? Is this manually engraved after minting? And why? If you could please email me back the answer to redeyedpanther88@yahoo.com, that'd be greatly appreciated!  Thanks!

Answer
Hi Barbara,

This is one of 50 coins manufactured for a set -- with the coins in the set each having one of the 50 states manually stamped into it.  This is not something that was done at the Mint, but rather somebody took a roll of pennies, stamped the images onto them, and put together the state set from the 50 of them.

Occasionally you can still find these sets together, all 50 coins mounted on a board -- these sell for about $20.

However, just a single coin like yours is worth maybe a quarter as a novelty item -- sometimes found in a dealer's misc. bin.

I hope this helps,

Dan