Is It A Find?!

Hi Dan, I started collecting coins as a child and stopped when I became a teenager. Now, about fifty years later, I have rediscovered my collection. I have this 1857 penny on what appears to be a keychain with a good luck saying. Does it have any value or is it ruined because it has been set as such? Should I try to take it out? It is the oldest coin I have. Sincerely, Mark J. B, Greetings Mark, Your find is called an "encased coin," which originated around 1900 and became popularized to the American public at the 1901 World's Fair Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York. Pennies were inserted into aluminum encasements that often featured a "Good Luck" slogan and were sold as souvenirs or given out as advertisements. There are thousands of examples made with different advertising or popular tourist destinations featured on the back. Encased coins seemed to have lost their popularity around the 1960s. Yours is an early example with an 1857 Flying Eagle penny in it, which makes it quite rare. As it was, encased coins were made with new pennies, so it is uncommon to find one that was manufactured with a fifty- to sixty-year-old coin at the time. It is worth more as a whole piece, and it would be best to leave it intact. The penny was pressed into the case with a machine — which actually damages the coin, leaving it with an altered grade. Thus numismatically, it would be worth far less than book value. There is a market for encased coins, and yours could sell for upwards of $50, which is much more than the value of the penny alone. Great question, and I appreciate you taking the time to write in.