Jack Daws made ten counterfeit pennies from gold for an art show in LA in 2007. He put one of the pennies into circulation at the airport, possibly never to see it again. Well, just last month, Jessica in Brooklyn found the penny, which is worth about a hundred dollars.
“The artwork looks like a real penny, except due to the casting process, it’s slightly smaller, and because of the gold’s weight, it’s almost twice as heavy….Anyone interested in looking for the piece… should look for a penny dated 1970, with no mint mark.”
I looked at the penny I’d found. Date stamp, 1970. No mint mark.
Seriously?! I needed more. Pennies minted in San Francisco do not have mint marks, and pennies minted in 1970 are the opposite of rare.
Next test: I took the penny to the kitchen and pulled out my digital scale. 3 grams.
Sure enough, a 1972 penny weighed in at 2 grams.
I honestly thought there was no way it could be “the” penny. The chance of it being found seemed too great. The chance of my having found it seemed to great. Still, I went to the website of the Seattle gallery that represents Daws, Greg Kucera Gallery, to see if any further information was available, any sure tell that I had indeed found not only the penny, but a really good story as well.
Check out the full story at The Stranger.
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