1942 Cent Pattern - J-2065, Transparent Amber

Coin Details

Auction Record

$1,840 MS60 05-28-2008 Heritage Auctions

Description

Judd-2065, Pollock-2255, is a transparent amber composition cent pattern from the 1942 wartime testing program — arguably the most remarkable of all the non-metallic experiments. The transparency of this pattern makes it utterly unlike any coin ever produced or seriously considered for production by any major world mint. A transparent cent would be immediately identifiable and essentially impossible to confuse with any other denomination, but it would also look nothing like money as anyone understood it in 1942. The amber coloring and translucency suggest a material related to celluloid, Lucite, or another early transparent thermoplastic. Holding a transparent amber cent up to the light would reveal the reverse design through the obverse — a visual novelty that was fascinating but fundamentally incompatible with public expectations of what a coin should be. The transparent amber pattern represents the outermost boundary of the Mint's experimentation, the point at which the search for alternatives pushed furthest from conventional coinage into genuinely undocumented territory.

Rarity Notes

R-7 to R-8. Extremely rare. The transparent amber cent is one of the most visually striking and unusual items in all of American numismatics. Highly prized by collectors of the unusual.

Cross References

Judd J-2065, Pollock P-2255; 1942 wartime cent composition testing program; transparent amber (likely thermoplastic); last of seven non-metallic compositions