that's it for us tonight. we thank you for joining us. tom fitton is among our guests monday. we hope you joins. good night from new york. >> a "strange inheritance" mystery... >> i thought, "what? what is going on?" >> ...a norman rockwell shocker. >> is it a fake? >> well, this was the question that was in everyone's mind. >> oh, if these walls could talk. >> i want you to put your hands like this, and we're going to pull it toward me. >> aah! >> there you go. >> oh, my goodness. >> keep going. ♪ [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] ♪ >> i'm jamie colby in arlington, vermont, once home to norman rockwell. it was also home to a man

who left his children a multimillion-dollar conundrum involving the iconic american painter and illustrator. >> my name is don trachte jr. my siblings and i were supposed to inherit from our father one of norman rockwell's best-known paintings. what we got was a mystery. what the heck had dad done with it? >> hi, don. i'm jamie. >> hi, jamie. >> so nice to meet you. so great to be in vermont. what is this place? >> this was my dad's studio. >> back in the 1950s, don's dad, donald trachte sr., is a syndicated cartoonist working on the popular strip "henry," which features a bald-headed boy, simply illustrated with clean lines and minimal backgrounds. can you support a wife and four kids drawing "henry"? >> it was a good living. my dad had to come up with all the gags... >> really? >> ...and he would have a sheet of paper next to his drawing board,

and usually, he'd come up with about three or four gags at a time. >> were they gags about you kids? >> well, sometimes they were. >> so life for the trachtes is pretty good here in arlington, a picturesque artist's colony with a world-famous resident -- norman rockwell. how did your dad meet norman rockwell? >> when we arrived in arlington, we met a realtor, and if you showed artistic ability, he probably dragged you down to norman rockwell's house. >> did rockwell come to your father's studio to visit? >> he did make a couple visits but very short. you know, norman worked seven days a week, and he just was on high gear. >> don sr. even poses for rockwell, playing the principal in one of his famous saturday evening post covers. and don jr. gets his shot as a rockwell model when his dad volunteers him to pose for this photo from which rockwell paints a child life magazine cover.

is that you? >> that's me. >> you're holding hands with the girl... >> yes. >> ...which you did not like yet. >> well, i may have liked her. i was just embarrassed. >> don sr. and rockwell develop a pretty close professional acquaintance. they share tricks of the trade and the same sense of humor. here's the cartoonist with the great painter wearing matching bow ties and french berets. how close did he get to rockwell? did he look over his shoulder while he was painting? >> my dad had a great sense of observation, and when he watched rockwell, he would look at his paints, his paintbrush, what kind of varnish. my dad just worshipped norman rockwell. >> they keep in touch after rockwell leaves vermont for stockbridge, massachusetts, in 1953, where he continues to paint some of the most iconic

images of small-town america. >> all the materials that you see here were actual rockwell tools. he was very neat. you can see how clean his brushes were. >> oh, my. stephanie plunkett is chief curator of the rockwell museum in stockbridge, which includes the painter's barn studio. i see the chair. it would mean a lot to sit in norman rockwell's. please? >> jamie, we would be honored to have you sit in rockwell's chair. >> oh, my gosh. this is amazing. norman rockwell painted in this chair. oh, my gosh. it's from this chair in 1954 that rockwell paints "breaking home ties," which will become one of the most popular saturday evening post covers of all time. what is the story in this? what did he want people to know? >> his idea was, this is a young man from a very rural community in america, and he is leaving home

for the first time to go to college. his father is a rancher, and he is slumped. he's holding two hats... >> oh. >> ...which is such a beautiful memento. he's holding his own and his son's. and the collie dog is feeling... >> sad. and dad is, what, reflecting on the end of an era maybe? his son won't be a rancher with him? >> very much so. >> classic rockwell -- a single scene tells a poignant story of the joys and laments, worries and hopes, sweet and bittersweet rhythms in the life of every american family, like the trachtes. as the years go by, "henry" gives elizabeth and don sr. the wherewithal to acquire their own impressive little art collection. it's in 1962 when they see "breaking home ties" for sale at a vermont art gallery. they buy it for $900.

was there anything particular about the subject of this painting that you think your father became particularly attracted to? >> well, two things. one is the character -- the old man sitting on the running board was our neighbor floyd, and my dad thought the world of floyd, as all of us did. i think also that the painting told a story. it's a separation of your children from home, so i think it's that emotional connection that probably grabbed my dad. >> do you think it could be you leaving? >> it could be. perhaps at that time, my father was experiencing the separation of all of his kids, and maybe that was it. >> did your dad know it was a good investment? >> you know, i don't think he bought it as an investment at all. he just thought it was such a wonderful piece of art. why would you even sell anything like that? >> of course, it is a good investment. just 2 years after he purchased it, don sr. receives an offer

in 1964 for 35,000 bucks. that's a lot of money then. >> it was an extraordinary amount of money. a lot of us would've just sold right then and there, wouldn't we? >> yes. >> but not my dad, not interested. i actually have a letter right here. take a look at that. >> from norman rockwell, stockbridge, mass. "dear don, you must be crazy not to sell it, but i adore your loyalty. as ever, norman." ha! >> that's it. >> he's saying you should've sold. >> that's right. >> "breaking home ties" remains on display in the trachtes' vermont home, but as more time passes, life for the trachtes resembles less and less a norman rockwell painting. when they divorced, i mean, how do you cut a rockwell in half? >> that's a terrible thought, isn't it? >> here's a "strange inheritance" quiz question. why did norman rockwell keep a mirror in his studio --

to reflect sunlight onto his paintings, to watch himself while he worked or to look at his painting in reverse? the answer after the break. ♪it's been a long time coming, coming

♪seeming like we all been running, running♪ ♪feeling like the wild west, gunning, gunning♪ ♪listen to our elders shunning, shunning♪ ♪all we see is faces, color, color♪ ♪all the other races, other, other♪ ♪why can't you just be my brother, brother?♪

♪we don't have to kill one another, kill one another♪ ♪all around the world, we are one, we are one♪ ♪all around the world, we are one♪ ♪so where did we all go wrong?♪ ♪woo ♪where did we all, where did we all go wrong?♪ ♪love, love, love, love ♪love, love, love ♪(love is our only hope) ♪love, love, love ♪where did we all? ♪ >> so why did norman rockwell keep a mirror in his studio? it was to look at his paintings in reverse. he believed that if the picture was also engaging when looked at backwards, it was sure to be a winner.

>> after purchasing the norman rockwell painting called "breaking home ties" for $900 in 1962, don and elizabeth trachte display it in their vermont home. don sr. continues drawing the comic "henry" but spends more and more time painting, too. >> he did a lot of painting later in his life. he did western art. he did what i call cape cod art. >> he's pretty good. >> he was pretty good. >> but he's increasingly withdrawn and estranged from elizabeth. at some point, do you get an inkling that your parents might divorce? >> i think it was just time for them to part ways. >> and they do in 1973 after 32 years of marriage. so what to do with the art they collected together?

they have seven relatively valuable paintings from lesser-known artists in addition to that famous rockwell. when they divorced, was there an issue about... i mean, how do you cut a rockwell in half? >> well, that's a terrible thought, isn't it? >> the couple agree to give the eight paintings to their children -- their inheritance to be received upon their parents' deaths. until then, elizabeth keeps five and don three, including the rockwell. by the way, it jumps in value when rockwell dies in 1978 at age 84. don sr. builds this home and art studio in the woods. he draws the sunday edition of "henry" until it's canceled in 1994. by 2001, now in his 80s, health problems force don sr. to lay down his pencils and brushes altogether, and he begins splitting his time

living with his children. >> we just wanted him kind of with us and safe. >> with their father's house empty and cold, don jr. and his siblings worry about their strange inheritance -- the famous painting on the wall that's now possibly worth millions. looking for a safer place, they call the norman rockwell museum and chief curator stephanie plunkett. >> they say, "would you like to exhibit it?" and we, of course, were thrilled because this is actually an icon in rockwell's career. >> did you tell dad? >> yes, and he never said anything. he just nodded. >> ever take dad to see it? >> oh, no. withing a year or two, he went into assisted living. i just thought it was a lot for him to absorb, so i never took him down to the museum. i said, "why put him through that?" >> don trachte sr. passes away in 2005 at age 89, but just as his four children

formally inherit "breaking home ties," they start hearing whispers that the famous painting just might be a fake. >> one art expert walked in and said, "it's a third-rate replica," and i thought, "what?" i was concerned, like, what is going on? >> here's another quiz question. to model the girl's black eye in this painting, did rockwell put a wanted ad in the paper for a kid with a shiner, visit a boxing gym or paint his own black eye? the answer when we return. as a fitness junkie, i customize everything - bike, wheels, saddle. that's why i switched to liberty mutual.

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>> so how did rockwell model the girl's black eye in this painting? it's a.

he placed a wanted ad offering 5 bucks for a kid with a black eye. he found this little guy, tommy forestburg, of worcester, mass, who'd taken a tumble down the stairs. >> don trachte jr. and his siblings face a multimillion-dollar mystery. they've loaned this painting, norman rockwell's "breaking home ties," to the rockwell museum in stockbridge, massachusetts, but now they're hearing questions about the authenticity of their strange inheritance. >> there were some doubts. in fact, one art expert walked in and said, "this is a fake." >> even don jr. sees subtle differences between his painting and the 1954 saturday evening post cover. >> look in the area of the boy's face, and look at those two side by side. >> well, his face is much fuller. >> yeah. there's some differences, aren't there? and that's primarily...

>> eyes are different. >> the eyes are different. >> mm-hmm. >> and the mouth is different. >> mm-hmm. but there must be an innocent explanation. the museum believes the painting was probably subjected to a subpar touch-up job. that's why, when don and his siblings decide it might be time to sell "breaking home ties," their comfortable reaching out to sotheby's in new york. sotheby's appraiser peter rathbone visits the rockwell museum to see it. like some other experts, he's perplexed. >> it just wasn't as well painted as one had sort of become accustomed to seeing in rockwell's work. but here you are in the norman rockwell museum, where the painting has been on public display for, you know, several years. >> rathbone believes the painting could bring between $3 and $5 million at auction. >> in 2002, we sold the iconic "rosie the riveter" that brought

just under $5 million, so we were obviously looking at a very bullish market for rockwell's work. >> but before they test the market, the family decides to test the painting. they send it to the williamstown art conservation center in 2006 for a detailed analysis. the family faces three possible outcomes. it's the original rockwell that's been touched up, or a second version of the painting by rockwell himself, or it could be a forgery. having them take a look could take the millions that you and your siblings are entitled to and throwing it out the window if it doesn't go your way. >> it could, but we were so adamant that we had to understand what is wrong with this painting? now, my best hope was that we'd actually find that this was the original painting, but someone had repainted or painted over parts of the painting. >> no dice.

it turns out the painting is a completely original and pretty well-executed fake! >> that's when, you know, the air was going out of the balloon. >> disheartened, confused and a lot poorer than they were days before, don jr. and his brother david go to their late father's studio in hopes of finding anything that could solve the mystery. what happened? >> when dave walked over here, he noticed this little crack. push against that. oh. uh-oh. >> wait a minute. it moves. >> it moves. we said, "what the heck is going on here?" >> what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com.

♪ >> now back to "strange inheritance." >> don trachte jr. is in the middle of a "strange inheritance" enigma. this norman rockwell painting,

"breaking home ties," has been in his family for more than 40 years, but now it's revealed that they're holding on to a fake. what gives? don and his brother david search their late father's vermont art studio. >> my brother walked over to this space right here. he noticed this little crack, and he pushed against the wall. push against that, and you see? oh. uh-oh. >> wait a minute. it moves. >> it moves, and we said, "what the heck is going on here?" >> don and his brother snap these pictures as they begin to dismantle pieces of their father's bookcase. >> now, i want you to come over here. i want you to put your hands like this, and we're going to pull it toward me. >> ah! >> there you go. >> oh, my goodness. >> keep going. >> behind this secret sliding wall, don and his brother discover what they didn't even know they were looking for -- the original rockwell painting,

"breaking home ties." did you scream, cry, hug each other? >> we didn't say a word. >> but they must say something to the curator at the rockwell museum. >> i received a call from don jr., and he said, "i have good news, and i have bad news. the good news is i know where the original is, and the bad news is that it's not at the museum." >> did word get out that the museum had a forgery? >> yes. as a matter of fact, it was a challenging moment for sure. >> the "strange inheritance" story makes headlines, which is actually good news to peter rathbone at sotheby's. >> we adjusted our estimate slightly from $3 to $5 million up to $4 to $6 million. this is the rockwell property of the trachte family collection. >> "breaking home ties" goes up for auction in new york city in november 2006.

you remember the first bid? >> i do. it was, "let's start the auction process at $4 million." >> i have $4 million, $4,100,000. >> so the bidding then continues. now we're at $6 million, $7,800,000, $8 million, $9 million. >> oh, my gosh. >> and then it started to go faster. >> ten million. i have 11 million. twelve million dollars. >> and then, all of a sudden, it stopped. >> all done? sold for $13,750,000. >> add to that the buyer's premium and the grand total hits $15.4 million -- at the time, a new world record for a rockwell painting. it's a happy ending for the trachte kids, even if the mystery is never to be completely solved. don can only deduce that sometime before his parent's divorce, his father was the one who copied the rockwell. accepted by a museum that just has norman rockwells.

>> that's right. >> did you know he was that good? >> no, i didn't. >> don is unsure of the answer to the bigger question. why did dad do this? >> i think he just wanted to protect this, and people would come up to me and they came up with all the "what ifs." what if the house burned down? what if it got bulldozed? what if we sold it? but i didn't have ready answers. >> all don is certain of is that his father wasn't trying to defraud anyone, much less his mother. he didn't have a war with my mom like a lot of people suspect. >> you had to let mom know. how did she react? >> she put her hands on her face like this and listened, and she said, "this doesn't surprise me." >> really? >> yeah. she was 89 at the time. >> she took it well. >> she took it well. >> by the way, remember those other pricey paintings? don sr. kept those originals hidden behind his secret wall, too.

so he painted duplicates. >> he painted eight duplicates. >> i decide to bounce off don my own theory about his cartoonist father. did your dad want to be norman rockwell? >> i don't think he wanted to be norman rockwell. i think he just wanted to absorb and be as, perhaps, as great as norman rockwell in his own right. >> and in a way, don is now helping make that happen. you're surely asking, "where is the fake rockwell now?" well, it's on its own museum tour. that's right. don jr. is showcasing his father's amazing rockwell duplicate along with the seven other paintings he copied, all nearly indistinguishable from the originals. the exhibit places the real and the duplicate painting side by side. imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for watching "strange inheritance," and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> loose change in a desk drawer. >> for 30-plus years, this baggage has sat around? >> yes. >> inside, a fabled coin. >> it was a unicorn, talked about but never seen. >> a rare coin that could bring in millions of dollars at auction this spring. >> sounds like "ka-ching!" >> one coin, potentially worth $2 million? >> one penny. >> but then, the government flips. >> they're coming after you. >> they are. [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ]

>> i'm jamie colby. and today i am cruising ocean side in beautiful la jolla, california, just north of san diego. i'm on my way to meet an heir whose strange inheritance stunned the coin-collecting world, then led to a showdown with uncle sam. >> my name is randy lawrence. i inherited a baggie of coins from my father, who worked at the denver mint. imagine a shiny penny. but instead of being copper-colored, it's silver. that was one of the coins my dad left me. and it turned my life upside down. >> hi, randy. i'm jamie. >> hello. nice to meet you. >> so great to meet you, too. and i heard that your inheritance came in a small plastic bag? >> it did. >> randy shows me in, sits me down, and hands me a baggie full of coins. well, they can't be very valuable, i guess, if they're still sitting here in a ziploc. >> well, those particular ones

aren't necessarily. but there was one in that bag that was quite valuable. >> where is it? can i see it? >> well, i don't have it. >> huh? >> yeah, there's a little bit of a story. >> it's the story of randy's dad, harry lawrence, who grows up near denver, takes a shine to engineering, and studies metallurgy at the colorado school of mines. after serving in the army corps of engineers during world war ii, harry heads to chicago, where he lands a job as a foreman at a smelting plant, sweltering work, but not nearly as hot as the time harry spends hanging around the water cooler. >> that's where he met my mother. she was a receptionist, and he was a manager. and she was much younger and very pretty. and i think she just made him work for it. >> and he won. >> and he won. >> randy is the second of two boys. in 1960, when he's 3,

his dad accepts a job at the us mint in denver, packs up the family, and heads west. it was a dream job for him because it was bringing him back to colorado. >> was it pretty prestigious to have a father who worked at the denver mint? >> i felt it was. in the schoolyard, when other children would ask me, "well, what's your dad do," i... "makes money." and they said, "no, no, really, what's he do?" "no, he makes money." >> randy's dad loves the precision that goes into minting the nation's coins. but as with any perfectionist, it's the flaws that really catch his eye. >> he had a bag full of these coins. and there was a few of these error coins in there. >> what is an error coin? >> an error coin is one that was mis-struck at the mint. so it didn't land correctly in the press. and therefore, it might be off center, or the edge might be curled. >> this is a pretty interesting penny. but it looks like two pennies! >> michael mcconnell is a la jolla coin shop owner who knows all about error coins.

>> it's simply a penny that was struck twice. it got stuck in the press. and it got struck again. >> randy's father collects the error coins that he finds in a plastic baggie that he keeps at home in a drawer. >> so when you work for the mint and they mis-strike a coin, they let you take it home? >> well, i guess so. there are many error coins out there that are bought and sold every day. >> randy's mistaken about that. taking home error coins is illegal, but apparently ignored sometimes, at least in his dad's day. so it's quite possible that when harry retires from the mint in 1980, his bosses do say he can keep his error coins, a retirement gift, harry explains. what's harry's plan for them? no way to know. just six months later, he dies of a heart attack at the age of 60. i'm so sorry. he was young. >> yes, very young.

it was a shame that he didn't get to enjoy his retirement. >> did he leave a will? >> he did. >> did he reference the coins in any way? >> i got the bag of coins. my brother got a set of guns. my father collected guns as well. >> randy has zero interest in coin collecting and tosses his inheritance in his desk drawer. for the next three decades, he says, he forgets all about it until he moves from denver to la jolla and, one day, is checking out the new neighborhood. >> i walked into michael's coin shop, la jolla coin. >> yep, that michael. before long, the coin dealer will be on the scent of a fortune. that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. us coins have mint marks p, d, s, and w, designating the locations where they're made. can you name all four? extra credit if you know what the government makes

at the w location. the answers after the break. with my friends to our annual get-together, especially after being diagnosed last year with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. (avo) another tru story with keytruda. (dr. kloecker) i started katy on keytruda and chemotherapy and she's getting results we rarely saw five years ago. (avo) in a clinical trial, significantly more patients lived longer and saw their tumors shrink than on chemotherapy alone. (dr. kloecker) it's changed my approach to treating patients. (avo) keytruda may be used with certain chemotherapies as your first treatment if you have advanced nonsquamous, non-small cell lung cancer and you do not have an abnormal "egfr" or "alk" gene. keytruda helps your immune system fight cancer, but can also cause your immune system to attack healthy parts of your body. this can happen during or after treatment and may be severe and lead to death. see your doctor right away if you have new or worse cough, chest pain, shortness of breath, diarrhea, severe stomach pain or tenderness, nausea or vomiting, rapid heartbeat,

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♪all around the world, we are one♪ we are one♪ ♪so where did we all go wrong?♪ ♪woo ♪where did we all, where did we all go wrong?♪ ♪love, love, love, love ♪love, love, love >> so, what do the p, d, s, and w stand for on us coins? p is for the philadelphia mint, d for denver, s for san francisco, and w for west point, where the government makes commemorative coins and stores gold.

>> randy lawrence moves his family from denver to la jolla, california, in 2013. while checking out his new town, he happens upon the la jolla coin shop. he tells the owner, michael mcconnell, about the bag full of error coins that he inherited from his dad, who worked at the denver mint. >> i said, "you know, i think it's time i have somebody take a look at this. would you be interested?" >> michael agrees. so randy returns with that old baggie. michael sorts through the contents, pausing on one silver-colored penny. >> it was an off-metal coin that wasn't the weight of a normal penny. >> it didn't feel right to you? >> correct. and the first thing that came to my mind was, because the us mint has struck over 1,000 different coins for over 40 different countries, that this coin was struck on a planchet meant for a foreign coin. >> what's a planchet? >> the planchet is a round disk

of metal that the coin is actually made out of. >> a us penny stamped on a blank intended for a foreign coin, michael says, might be worth a few hundred dollars. the other coins have some value, too. so michael makes randy an offer for the whole collection. what was the total price for everything? >> i think i left there with a little over 2,000. >> were you happy? >> i was happy with it. love you, dad. but you know what? i'm over it. i don't need the coins. >> but the coin-shop owner keeps thinking about that pretty penny. you see, there's this tale in the annals of coin history about an unusual batch of pennies the government minted in the 1970s. >> the price of copper had gone up in 1973. and so it actually became not cost-effective to make the penny out of that. and so they were looking for alternatives. >> paul montgomery tells me the story. he's a rare-coin dealer and author. and he explains that the mint's solution

is to switch from costly copper to a cheaper metal. what was the composition of them? >> the coin is made out of 96 percent aluminum. >> the mint's proud of the coin. it strikes a million and a half and even hands out a few to members of congress before its release. but the aluminum penny is a bigger '70s flop than the gremlin or the leisure suit. >> the coins didn't work in vending machines, uh, i guess because of the metal. kids would swallow 'em, and they wouldn't show up in x-rays, either. >> so instead of circulating the coins, the mint melts them down. and it takes back the few it handed out. the 1974 aluminum penny becomes as elusive as the proverbial unicorn... or maybe not. >> i began doing additional research, which led me to think that it may actually be that unicorn. >> the next thing he does it call a lawyer.

so what does the lawyer advise you? >> he advised me to go and get the coin certified, to make sure that it truly was an aluminum penny. >> tests show it is indeed made of 96 percent aluminum, just like those minted, then melted-down pennies from the 1970s. were you excited? >> it was obviously the scarcest coin i've ever handled. >> and things are going to get complicated because the heir of this "strange inheritance" story is about to reenter the picture. what's michael offering you? that's next. >> here's another quiz question for you. who preceded john f. kennedy on the half dollar? the answer when we return.

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>> so, who was on the half dollar before jfk? it's "a," benjamin franklin, from 1948 to 1963. >> a baggie full of coins, that's randy lawrence's strange inheritance from his father, who worked at the denver mint. when he brings it to this la jolla, california, coin shop, owner michael mcconnell tells him the fistful of change is worth a couple of grand. after randy takes the deal, michael determines one of the coins, a 1974 penny, is made of aluminum. that suggests it's from a run of coins never put into circulation. if so, it's one of those finds collectors dream about.

michael knows he owes randy, just for starters, a phone call. >> people come to us because we're the experts. and so if we give somebody bad advice on something like that, we, of course, have to go back to 'em and tell 'em that's not right, that's not what i originally thought the coin was. >> and he wanted to set up a meeting with me. so i went down to his coin shop. >> what's michael offering you? >> well, technically, he was the owner of this coin. so we worked out a 60-40 split. i took back 60 percent ownership. he gave me back 60 percent value of the coin. >> interesting. so michael buys the coin and owns it outright in your mind. >> mm-hmm. >> but when he learns that it's more valuable, he's willing to bring you back in as a partner? >> he felt that was the right thing to do. >> what were randy's options when you told him the news? what could he have said? >> he could have said anything. >> could he say, "give me my coin back?" >> absolutely. >> so for $300, he could have bought this coin back from you? >> sure. >> what did he say? >> after we talked about it, and we talked about the options,

he said, "let's partner up and go forward." >> how do you decide what's fair? >> well, it's kinda tough in this kinda situation. but this was a coin that had been in randy's family for a long time. this was a family heirloom. and i was certainly happy to give that split. >> i'll say, for it turns out that randy's rare penny has one more strange characteristic that will set the coin world abuzz -- that little d. >> so this one has a d mint, signifying it was made in denver. >> that's where randy's dad worked. >> and that is why this coin was so unique. >> because as far as anyone knows, the 1.5 million aluminum coins minted, then recalled in 1974, all came from philadelphia, not denver. that could lift its value into the stratosphere. did michael give you a sense of what it could be worth? >> anywhere from a low end of 250,000 up to 2 million. >> one coin, potentially

worth $2 million? >> one penny. >> as co-owners of the coin, randy and michael decide to put it up for auction, beginning with a sneak peak at a coin expo in long beach, california. >> it was phenomenal. >> a rare coin that's spent years lost in a drawer could bring in millions of dollars at auction. >> we were on every television station. >> and realized it might be something a little more special. >> i was getting phone calls from across the country, as well as seeing articles across the world -- russia, china... >> is the price going up at this point with all that interest? >> in my mind, it is. >> then out of the blue, the postman knocks. >> well, i got a very interesting letter from the government. >> a letter? do you have the letter? >> i do, right here. >> oh, this doesn't look good. what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail

or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. ♪get along, on down the road

♪we've got a long long way to go♪ ♪scared to live, scared to die♪ ♪we ain't perfect but we try ♪get along while we can ♪always give love the upper hand♪ ♪paint a wall, learn to dance♪ ♪call your mom, buy a boat♪ ♪sing a song, make a friend♪ ♪can't we all get along? rasam:: it was thirteen hundred hours. my math class, room 302, was in the trenches.

davy roth had it the worst. fractions were coming at him left and right. he just didn't get the damn things. two days ago, i tried to teach him what 1/4 of 1/2 was using different sizes of blocks. yesterday, i tried again by dividing up pizza. both missions failed. rachel: oh no. sam: but today...i was ready. sam: i created a combat math game where the only way to beat the enemy is to out-fraction them. davy conquered every last denominator. my game was so successful, the principal is deploying it to math squadrons all over the school. rachel: wow! sam: anyhoo, how was your day? rachel: oh, uhh... today my boss treated the office to salad wraps. sam: mmm, salad wraps. rachel: i know.

>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> in february 2014, randy lawrence is gearing up for the auction of his one-of-a-kind inheritance, a 1974 aluminum penny. it was left to him by his father, harry. but now he's hearing from his uncle sam. "dear mr. lawrence, it has come to the attention of the united states mint that you may be in the possession or control of an aluminum one-cent coin. it is our understanding that you may have obtained this item from your late father." boy, they know a lot! >> they sure do. >> "please contact me at your earliest opportunity so we may discuss arrangements for the timely return of the subject piece." they're coming after you. >> they are. >> recall that randy's father works at the denver mint for 20 years.

upon retiring in 1980, he's apparently allowed to keep a bag full of error coins as part of his retirement gift. you were convinced, in your mind, that your dad received this coin legally and was entitled to keep it? >> absolutely, 100 percent. >> but now, 34 years later, the government claims otherwise. what are your options? >> well, our options was to immediately turn over the coin, or do what we did. and that was to file a lawsuit against the united states treasury to keep ownership of the coin. >> the other half of "we" is coin-shop owner michael mcconnell. why didn't you just turn it over to the mint? >> i didn't think it belonged to them. and there certainly wasn't evidence that said it belonged to them. >> the same circumstances have existed so many times in the past, and so there are precedents. >> and rare-coin expert paul montgomery believes those precedents favor randy.

exhibit a -- the super-rare 1913 liberty head nickels, which montgomery wrote a book about. his research indicates they likely were struck by a rogue mint worker, just as the government's claiming in randy's case. >> each one of these coins had been owned and purchased. and millions of dollars had traded hands. and yet the government has never gone after those. why this one? >> in their lawsuit, randy and michael cite other rare coins with similar histories that collectors buy, sell, and own freely. the government's response -- "so what?" then it ups the ante by putting on the public record serious allegations against harry. >> accusations of my father not being of the highest standard. >> for example? >> well, that he could have been the one who made the coin, or my father should have known better than to accept it and keep it. >> what was the government's

beef against harold lawrence? >> well, they suspected that mr. lawrence had a nefarious scheme to produce coins that weren't supposed to be produced. >> bottom line -- the government is strongly suggesting that randy's dad is a crook. did that make you mad? >> very, very angry, yeah. >> two stories, two sides of the coin. and before the case goes to trial, the government deposes the man who headed the aluminum cent project back in the 1970s, former mint director alan goldman. to randy's great relief, goldman's testimony exonerates his father. under oath, the former mint director states, "i knew harry lawrence very well, and he was a straight shooter. he would not have engineered this." >> when i read that, i knew that my father's name was cleared. >> but that's all the good news because goldman also bolsters

the government's claim that the penny was struck improperly. >> he believed that it was actually made as a practical joke by one of the mint employees. and as far as how it came to my father, again, probably as a memento when he retired. >> with no star witnesses of their own, it's going to be hard for randy and michael to convince a jury the coin rightfully belonged to harry. they drop their lawsuit. you're willing to walk away from $2 million? >> apparently so. i did. >> it seems like you caved. >> at the end of the day, because there aren't enough people left to be able to tell the whole story as to how it really came to be, i felt like it was kind of a case that we weren't ever going to be able to win. >> the man from la jolla is forced to return a rare and valuable coin to the us government. >> the us mint declined our request for an interview about randy's aluminum penny.

is the government becoming more strict in that regard? >> this is first i've seen anything like this. i see the government getting very active in lots of things. but confiscating collectible rare coins has never been one of them. >> this has never happened, either. after receiving randy's strange inheritance, the mint puts it on display at a coin show near los angeles. collectors press their face against the glass to get a good look-see. >> this is the first time that this coin's ever been displayed like this. and while the lawrence family may not even know this, they've already become a tremendous piece of the history and numismatic lore. >> so randy lawrence did not cash in his legendary aluminum penny for millions. but he did get a consolation prize of sorts. in coin-collecting circles, he and his father are now legends themselves, with the lawrence name forever attached to the one-of-a-kind 1974 d

aluminum one-cent piece. your dad's reputation is restored. >> perfect, yes. >> the coin is gone. >> yes. >> and you didn't make a buck. >> didn't make a penny. [ laughs ] i say the government's taken my last penny. >> remember how a handful of aluminum pennies were handed out to lawmakers back in 1974? legend has it that, one day, a congressman dropped his while rushing to vote on a bill. a capitol police officer tried to return it. the congressman, thinking it was just a dime, told the officer, "keep it." it's believed that officer's family may still have that super-rare penny. but the mint is now on record saying it would like it back, just like it wanted randy's. i guess you could say the mint's really pinching pennies these days.

i'm jamie colby. thanks for watching "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. now. >> from the fox studios in new york city. >> happy weekend. welcome to the program that analyzes the week that was in helps position you for the week ahead. coming up, chinese venture capitalist and the -- of ai is my special guest. we have a lot to talk about. artificial intelligence. the first markets have good news. secretary of the treasury, stephen mnuchin traveled to beijing and said u.s. china trade talks are on track. we got the latest data on