You might have a million dollar penny!

ElmerFusterpuck

The article itself is ok, even Stewart Blay is mentioned. But these stories will increase the number of people who will think that a gouged 1988-D found at Walmart is "the one."

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2023/02/23/the-pennies-in-your-pocket-could-be-worth-millions/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=snd&utm_content=ksat12

gumby1234

The article says that the 58 ddo is the first Lincoln cent to sell for over 1 million dollars. That is incorrect. A 1943 bronze sold for over a million about 10 or12 years ago.

ricko

Yep...like the article I posted two days ago..... These news items will have people searching their sock drawers, curse jars, piggy banks etc.... and no doubt we will see some of the results here on the forum. Cheers, RickO

mr1931S

@gumby1234 said:
The article says that the 58 ddo is the first Lincoln cent to sell for over 1 million dollars. That is incorrect. A 1943 bronze sold for over a million about 10 or12 years ago.

Thanks for sharing this information. Culpability for this error is not with the article writer, however. She is merely relaying to readers a direct quote by someone who is in the business of numismatics about the 58 ddo being the first Lincoln cent to sell for over 1 million dollars.

ms71

Just the usual suck-em-in clickbait. A couple days ago on Fox News they had one: "Have any $2 bills? They could be worth thousands!!". I can only imagine people digging around in bureau drawers looking for old ones they had put away and forgotten about. If you looked at the article, it was referring to the large ornate notes from the series of 1890. Yeah, there are lots of those floating around in commerce, or available at your local bank.

Fairfaxthunder

@ricko said:
Yep...like the article I posted two days ago..... These news items will have people searching their sock drawers, curse jars, piggy banks etc.... and no doubt we will see some of the results here on the forum. Cheers, RickO

Perhaps...separately.... I just found a gouged 1988-D found at Walmart! I think its the one!

coinbuf

It is pretty sad that reporters today do such a poor job, and while likely not intentional this is just more misinformation being put out there.

PeakRarities

Gotta love reporters, the headline is ridiculous, inaccurate clickbait. "The pennies in your pocket could be worth millions". No they are not, stop it. The coins that sell for big money are in mint state condition and have been protected and cared for for decades, they weren't found sloshing around in someone's grimy cupholder.

ms71

@DeplorableDan said:
Gotta love reporters, the headline is ridiculous, inaccurate clickbait. "The pennies in your pocket could be worth millions". No they are not, stop it. The coins that sell for big money are in mint state condition and have been protected and cared for for decades, they weren't found sloshing around in someone's grimy cupholder.

Wait a minute! Hold my beer . . . . I gotta run out to my car, I hadn't thought to check there!

JBK

"A million dollar penny."

Hmmm.

"Penny" is British, but "dollar" is American (among others).

Shouldn't it be either "a million dollar cent" or "a million pound penny"? 🤔

I'm guessing most people, even here, have long since given up on correcting the terminology.

Oh, well, I've got to get back to searching my nickel rolls.

Shane6596

WillieBoyd2

I found a million dollar penny in a five and ten cent store.

Shane6596

MasonG

Michael Crichton:

Media carries with it a credibility that is totally undeserved. You have all experienced this, in what I call the Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. (I refer to it by this name because I once discussed it with Murray Gell-Mann, and by dropping a famous name I imply greater importance to myself, and to the effect, than it would otherwise have.)

Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.

In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.

That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I'd point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. In court, there is the legal doctrine of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which means untruthful in one part, untruthful in all. But when it comes to the media, we believe against evidence that it is probably worth our time to read other parts of the paper. When, in fact, it almost certainly isn't. The only possible explanation for our behavior is amnesia.

telephoto1

I hate these articles because whenever they appear we inevitably get tons of phone calls from everyone who has a 1958-D Lincoln or $2 bill that didn't bother to read the article beyond the mention of the dates/types involved...

Pnies20

So many people texted me this article today 😂

daltex

@MasonG said:
Michael Crichton:

Media carries with it a credibility that is totally undeserved. You have all experienced this, in what I call the Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. (I refer to it by this name because I once discussed it with Murray Gell-Mann, and by dropping a famous name I imply greater importance to myself, and to the effect, than it would otherwise have.)

Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.

In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.

That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I'd point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. In court, there is the legal doctrine of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which means untruthful in one part, untruthful in all. But when it comes to the media, we believe against evidence that it is probably worth our time to read other parts of the paper. When, in fact, it almost certainly isn't. The only possible explanation for our behavior is amnesia.

Interesting. I don't stop reading (I take one far left paper and one right paper on paper on a daily basis), but I do take it as a clue to investigate further.

So when I watch a movie with supposedly factual plot points complete bunk, I strongly question anything other stated as fact for the rest of the movie. Where does that fit on the scale above?

Jimnight

NeophyteNumismatist

I just got done checking my change jar for Birch Cents, and... nothing. Some guys have all the luck.

mr1931S

@coinbuf said:
It is pretty sad that reporters today do such a poor job, and while likely not intentional this is just more misinformation being put out there.

FWIW, I'm seeing a reporter simply reporting as fact what she was told by someone in the business who she might reasonably assume is not trying to mislead her.

MasonG

@mr1874 said:

@coinbuf said:
It is pretty sad that reporters today do such a poor job, and while likely not intentional this is just more misinformation being put out there.

FWIW, I'm seeing a reporter simply reporting as fact what she was told by someone in the business who she might reasonably assume is not trying to mislead her.

Isn't it considered good form to confirm a claim before reporting it as a fact?

mr1931S

@MasonG said:

@mr1874 said:

@coinbuf said:
It is pretty sad that reporters today do such a poor job, and while likely not intentional this is just more misinformation being put out there.

FWIW, I'm seeing a reporter simply reporting as fact what she was told by someone in the business who she might reasonably assume is not trying to mislead her.

Isn't it considered good form to confirm a claim before reporting it as a fact?

Although much is being made of this alleged error by the reporter here in this forum, in the grand scheme of things this error, no matter who gets hung out to dry for it, registers a mere '1' on my outrage meter which btw was recently in the shop getting it's yearly recalibration. Register of '0' is no outrage at all. Register of '10' is the worst outrage, like a crime against humanity. Reporter doing interview with person who represents as an authority and should know simply doesn't have the time to fact check everything an authority says. Like it or not, that's the way it is.

MasonG

@mr1874 said:
Although much is being made of this alleged error by the reporter here in this forum, in the grand scheme of things this error, no matter who gets hung out to dry for it, registers a mere '1' on my outrage meter which btw was recently in the shop getting it's yearly recalibration. Register of '0' is no outrage at all. Register of '10' is the worst outrage, like a crime against humanity. Reporter doing interview with person who represents as an authority and should know simply doesn't have the time to fact check everything an authority says. Like it or not, that's the way it is.

Which is why reporters are held in such high esteem these days.

Gallup poll, July 2022:

16% of Americans have a great deal/quite a lot of confidence in newspapers
11% have some degree of confidence in television news

mr1931S

But you appear to trust the poll. Why is that?

MasonG

@mr1874 said:
But you appear to trust the poll. Why is that?

I didn't say I trusted it. I posted it for your benefit as you appear to be okay with current reporting. And it's current reporting, no?

ifthevamzarockin

@MasonG

mr1931S

Appearance to me is that you trust the poll. I wouldn't publish a thing as "fact" that I don't trust the validity of but that's just me. Not to change the subject but what did your outrage meter register about the reporter's direct quote of a numismatic authority's remark that the "first million dollar penny" is Blay's '58 DDO? My meter registers '1' and is holding steady at that number.

may

Ugh, I read an article about a year ago about rare coins in pocket change. It claimed you could find a Stella in your change.

coinbuf

@mr1931S said:

@coinbuf said:
It is pretty sad that reporters today do such a poor job, and while likely not intentional this is just more misinformation being put out there.

FWIW, I'm seeing a reporter simply reporting as fact what she was told by someone in the business who she might reasonably assume is not trying to mislead her.

Just my opinion, reporters should not be making assumptions, they should verify the facts before submitting the report. Just because "that guy" said so is not good or ethical reporting. And where this falls on anyone's "outrage meter" is irrelevant, maybe if everyone gave a pile of dung junk like this would not be tolerated. Ok off my soapbox now, flame away.

BuffaloIronTail

Forget the Penny.

I'm still trying to find a 1913 Barber Nickel.

Pete