Most pennies minted since mid-1982 are struck on planchets made up of a solid zinc core with only a trace of copper. This is what $26,000 coin should have been struck on.

The combination of "copper" and "penny" might not seem like the best formula for valuable coins considering that you can find higher denominations in gold and silver. But finding the right copper ...

Not only is there nothing you can buy with a penny, it's literally not worth the metal it's made of. With the rising cost of metals like copper and zinc, that one red cent is literally putting us ...