The rarity has also created many counterfeits. Some altered coins begin as 1948 copper cents, with part of the final digit filed away to resemble a 3. Others are ordinary 1943 steel cents coated with copper. A simple magnet is therefore a useful first check. A genuine copper cent should not stick, while a copper-plated steel cent normally will.
She was never supposed to survive. Curled up along the side of a rural Missouri road, she looked less like a living animal and more like a discarded pile of debris. Cars passed by one after another. Nobody stopped. Beneath the tangled mass of filthy fur, her body was slowly giving up. Then someone noticed…