The US government’s official phaseout of the penny has prompted a surge of online sales listing rolls of one-cent coins for hundreds or even thousands of dollars — but don’t be fooled, an expert says.
Inflated prices popping up on sites like eBay and Etsy are “100%” the result of opportunists exploiting public confusion about the end of the penny, John Feigenbaum, executive director of the Professional Numismatists Guild and CEO of Whitman Publishing, told The Post on Friday.
“Whenever there are stories about coins, scammers come along and take advantage of the headlines,” he said.
“On Etsy, it’s not unusual to see a penny that’s not even worth a dollar being listed for $100,000. People try it on eBay, too. Nobody is policing what people charge.”
In recent weeks, full boxes of 2025 Lincoln cents — which cost banks $25 — have been listed online for anywhere between $500 and $1,500. Some collectors have reported paying $20 for a single 50-cent roll.
Feigenbaum says those prices do not reflect the coins’ real value.
“The market for pennies in the numismatic world starts with the dealer-to-dealer market, and that translates to what customers should be charged,” he said.
“There should be a very direct connection between what things are worth wholesale and what they’re worth retail. When a dealer doesn’t want it, that’s a strong reflection on what collectors should pay.”
He dismissed claims that 2025 pennies from Philadelphia, where the last one-cent coins were made last week, carry any special premium.
“Yeah, it’s not true,” Feigenbaum said.
“We’re probably looking at a billion coins. In 2024, they made something like 3 billion. People are tying together two different stories to make it sound like these coins are valuable.”
Feigenbaum says there is only one 2025 penny product with genuine collector value — the small number of omega-marked coins the US Mint struck to commemorate the end of the denomination.
“Those coins have a special mark. They’re valuable. That’s everything in this situation,” he said.
“Without the omega privy mark, it’s a penny. With the omega, it’s going to be worth $10,000 or $20,000.”
The Mint produced 232 omega pennies in Philadelphia, 232 in Denver and 232 gold versions — all of which will be auctioned in December.
Coin experts say that those pennies — as well as the final handful of one-cent coins that were minted — could fetch as much as $5 million.
“They made them artificially rare,” Feigenbaum said. “Artificial rarity is still rarity, and these will definitely carry a significant premium.”
Feigenbaum compared the penny frenzy to the 1976 bicentennial coin craze, when Americans hoarded redesigned quarters and half-dollars by the millions in the mistaken belief they’d become valuable collectibles.
“Everybody hoarded them,” he said.
“People thought they’d be valuable. Today they’re still worth around face value. Scarcity is scarcity — if you make a billion of something, it’s not rare.”
For today’s 2025 pennies, Feigenbaum says the rule is simple: if dealers aren’t buying, neither should regular consumers.
“If a dealer says, ‘I don’t want your penny … I’m not paying you two cents for your one-cent penny,’ then there is no market,” he said.
Feigenbaum stressed that the high-priced listings spreading online do not reflect the numismatic market — only seller hype.
“The public reads some article that says, ‘The penny in your pocket could be worth a million dollars,’ and that’s where we are,” he said.
“The Omega coins are special. Everything else is not special to collectors.”
The Post has sought comment from eBay and Etsy.
