Learn › Metals and weights

Gold Penny: Is There a Real Gold One-Cent Coin?

4 min read · Updated Oct 9, 2026

Is there a gold penny?

Yes. The US Mint struck a 24-karat gold one-cent coin for its final penny sets in 2025. It was sold at auction in sets, not as everyday change. The Treasury puts the production cost of a penny at 3.69 cents, and the federal government has stopped manufacturing new pennies. Treasury also says the penny will remain legal tender. Pennies that look gold in circulation are a different matter, covered below.

What is the 24k gold penny?

In December 2025, Stack's Bowers Galleries auctioned 232 three-coin sets. They were offered exclusively in the sale held on Thursday, December 11, 2025. Each set held a 2025 Philadelphia cent, a 2025-D Denver cent and a 2025 cent struck in 24-karat gold at the Philadelphia Mint. CoinWeek reports that the gold cent is the first the Mint has officially struck in gold, and it was produced at the Philadelphia Mint. The number 232 matches the years pennies have been made since 1793. The Philadelphia and Denver cents in each set carry the Omega (Ω) privy mark, the last letter of the Greek alphabet. See 2025 Omega privy mark (final strike) and 2025-D Omega privy mark (final strike). CoinWeek called the sale a success, both financially and historically, and set number 232 was the highest-priced lot of the auction.

Why is my penny gold?

Gold-colored pennies usually come from one of two sources:

• Gold plating. Some are ordinary coins with a thin gold-colored coating added after minting. The American Numismatic Association (ANA) says plated coins hold only a trace of precious metal, and that plating counts as an alteration.
• Copper-based metal. Most cents from 1909 through the early 1980s, except 1943, are 95% copper. A copper-colored coin is not gold, however bright it looks. From 1982 on, the cent is copper-plated zinc. For the full composition history, see what pennies are made of.

Is a gold plated penny worth anything?

The US Treasury says pennies remain legal tender, so a gold-colored penny is still spendable. The ANA says plating counts as an alteration that lowers collector appeal, and that plated coins hold only a trace of precious metal. In the catalogue, a copper-plated zinc cent weighs about 2.50 g and a 95% copper cent about 3.11 g. For copper and red shades, see the penny color guide.

Gold penny value: what the catalogue says

The catalogue lists Omega-marked 2025 cents as too rare to price, and it advises authentication before any buying or selling. Its record entry shows the highest reported sale for that set. A gold cent offered outside its original set does not by itself prove a fake, but ask for its paperwork before you buy. Ordinary 2025 cents are catalogued at face value, see 2025. For the set and its history, read the 2025 Omega page and the end of the penny guide.

Penny Value is an Android app for now, so it isn't on the App Store. The values and checks on this page are free to use.Penny Value is an Android app. Open this page on your Android phone to check your own penny with a photo.

Coins in this guide

• 2025 Omega privy mark (final strike)

  Philadelphia · 232 made

  Collector issue

  Rarely sold
• 2025-D Omega privy mark (final strike)

  Denver · 232 made

  Collector issue

  Rarely sold
• 2025

  Philadelphia · Included in the 655,200,000 2025 total; not counted separately.

  1¢worn

Related guides

• The end of the penny: what 2025 means for collectors
• Red, Red-Brown or Brown: why a penny's color matters

Sources

1. CoinWeek, “Last Omega cents including U.S. Mint's 24K gold piece head to auction Dec 11th” (accessed 2026-10-09)
2. CoinWeek, “Stack's Bowers Galleries Omega cents sale concludes with strong results and historic highlights” (accessed 2026-10-09)
3. American Numismatic Association, “Coin Collecting FAQs” (accessed 2026-10-09)
4. U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Penny Production Cessation FAQs” (accessed 2026-10-09)
5. Wikipedia, “Lincoln cent” (accessed 2026-10-09)