$500 Penny Spent in Dover area

[DETREASUREHNTR]

A penny saved could be $500 earned
By ROBIN BROWN, The News Journal

Posted Tuesday, October 24, 2006

If you were in Dover on Monday, check your change for a 1914-D penny.
A Dover coin dealer on Monday spent a rare "wheat penny" worth $500 -- on purpose.

MidAtlanticCoins owner Steve A. Bryan says the finder can keep the wheat penny or redeem it at his shop for $500.

The coin? Check your change for a 1914-D Lincoln cent.

"All we ask," he said, "is that they bring the coin in so that we can identify the coin and declare that it has been found."

Beyond raising interest in his shop, Bryan says his penny ploy is a follow-up to what's been called the "Case of the Delaware Hundreds."

In early summer, $100 bills with no serial numbers were spent at Midway Slots in Harrington and Delaware Park in Stanton. The discovery excited collectors, and Professional Numismatists Guild spokesman Donn Pearlman said misprints, at odds of less than 1 in a million, would be worth thousands.

But Bryan knew the $100 bills' uneven edges might hint of a thief's scissors. He gave federal agents three of the bills he bought from customers for $400 apiece. A U.S. Treasury worker pleaded guilty last month to stealing sheets of the partly printed $100s.

For Bryan, the international publicity was worth far more than the $1,200 he spent.

Bryan came up with the idea of spending a $500 penny to raise the spirits of folks who were disappointed to miss a shot at finding valuable $100 bills. Plus, Bryan, who doesn't deny he's a publicity hound, said he knows a good idea when he sees one.

In April, for National Coin Weekend in New York, enthusiast Scott Travers raised interest by spending a rare 1909-S V.D.B. Lincoln cent (with initials of sculptor Victor David Brenner) worth $1,000 in the change he used to buy bottled water from a street vendor. Bryan said that event didn't specifically inspire him, but he knows Travers well, and his ploy.

Before heading out to spend his rare penny, Bryan would reveal no hints, except to say, "I'll be shopping all over Dover."

Contact robin brown at 324-2856 or [email protected]

 

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i just read this in the paper and was going to post it toninght! looks like you beat me to it. remember to check those pennies delawarians!

 

[DETREASUREHNTR]

$500 Penny Spent in Dover.De area Found

That $500 penny has been found

Dover coin dealer says it was turned in this morning, a couple hundred dollars worse for the wear

By ROBIN BROWN, The News Journal

Posted Tuesday, October 31, 2006 at 7:58 pm

The 1914-D Lincoln penny
A 1914-D Lincoln wheat-back penny worth $500, intentionally spent by a coin dealer to spark interest, was redeemed today at his store in Dover.

“I’d about begun to give up that anyone would find it,” said Steve A. Bryan, president and chief executive officer of MidAtlanticCoins.

Bryan -- who earlier this year gave investigators three $100 bills lacking serial numbers, leading to a federal worker’s arrest in their theft -- says he spent the penny Oct. 23 to get people looking at their pocket change and to console customers disappointed the $100s turned out to be stolen instead of valuable misprints they could hunt for.

Bryan says he mixed the $500 coin into a handful of pennies, including many less-valuable wheaties, then spent the change at eight Dover gas stations.

He doesn’t know exactly where he spent it, how many other folks spent it or where it traveled before being redeemed.

Early this morning, an unidentified man brought the coin in after finding it in a Dover towing company’s cash drawer.

“There were several scratches on the coin that made it easily identifiable as the one we spent,” Bryan said.

As promised before he spent it, Bryan paid $500 for the coin.

It’s valuable because relatively few -- just over 1 million -- were made in Denver in 1914, while 75 million were made elsewhere, he said. The 1914 D’s value ranges from $100 to several thousand, by condition, while plain 1914s are worth about 2 cents each, Bryan said.

Most wheat-back pennies are worth less than a nickel, he said.

Most sought is the 1909 S (San Francisco) with the designer’s initials VDB on the bottom reverse. “Starting price right around $500,” Bryan said.

His $500 penny, however, returned worse for the wear. New scratches worsened its condition and cut its value to $300.

Hundreds of people called thinking they’d found the pricey penny and many came by with what they thought was it -- but their coins had the date wrong.

“The nice part is that it did generate a lot of interest,” Bryan said. After the Today show reported he spent the $500 coin on purpose, Bryan said, collectors he knew in many states called or e-mailed to say he was nuts to spend it.

But the penny was all the talk at a South Carolina coin show he attended and his shop’s site, www.midatlanticcoins.com, topped 51,000 hits in a day -- from 21 countries, Bryan said. Coin forums also told the tale, linking to The News Journal’s coverage at www.delawareonline.com.

“It really has been a lot of fun,” he said. “So sometime here in the next few weeks, we’ll do another treasure hunt.”

Contact robin brown at 324-2856 or [email protected].