I came across this story by chance: A Coin World article recounts a 50-year-old story about coins whose existence was denied by U.S. Mint officials being melted down at the Allan Wood Steel Co. plant in Conshohocken. However, an accident occurred during the melting, scattering bags of coins across the steelworks floor, some of which were scooped up by steelworkers (and thus proving the coins’ existence).
From the article:
The caller was a retired steelworker who told me an incredible story of 20 years ago, in 1974, when U.S. Mint officials led a Mint Police unit on a visit to Allan Wood Steel Company in Pennsylvania. At least 40 bags of experimental steel pieces — more than 200,000 pieces — were destroyed in one of the plant’s furnaces, the man said.
However, sources said not all the debris was destroyed.
At least nine, and possibly as many as twelve, of the 1974 Lincoln Cent prototypes cast from bronze-clad steel plate reportedly survived the furnace.
The bag of experimental cents was pushed down a chute from the third floor into an oxygen furnace on the second floor, according to the sources. The cents were closely guarded by five Mint security officers, the sources said.
As the bags were being placed on a lift to be carried down the chute, one of the bags fell to the floor and exploded, scattering experimental pieces all over the floor. Mint security personnel instructed employees to move away from the spilled pennies while they swept them up to be melted.
According to the source, as the cents from the burst bag tumbled down the chute, a gust of wind sweeping through the plant picked up 10 to 12 coins and blew them onto the floor of the furnaces, which were not yet in operation. Despite the presence of Mint security guards, several employees managed to grab some of the coins, apparently evading the guards’ attention. The five coins held by the source belong to those dozen or so survivors. The other three coins belong to other mill employees and may remain in a burned state.
The full article can be found here, and Coin World’s follow-up article on this coin can be found here.
