"strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> a man who can have anything... >> he'd lay awake nights trying to think of a way to make a dollar. >> ...throws nothing away. >> you must have said to grandpa, "this can go, can't it?" >> yes. and we told him that a million times. >> one strange inheritance. >> wow, and it's packed! >> one heavy burden. >> how much do you have? >> oh, about 3 million pounds. >> one heck of a yard sale. >> this has got to be the largest i've ever seen in my life. i said, "if you can organize it, we can inventory it, and we can sell it." >> [ auctioneer calling ] [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ]

>> i'm jamie colby. and today, i'm in tulsa, oklahoma. i'm here to meet the son of a remarkably successful businessman and epic hoarder. file this under 80 years of grit and true metal and 40 acres of scrap metal. >> my name is john hemphill. in february 2016, my father passed away. he left me a thriving company that's a testament to his business acumen. he also left me a 3 million-pound headache that says a lot about my dad, too. >> i meet john in the lobby of hemphill corporation. and this was your dad. >> yeah, this is dad. he started the business back in the '50s. and i'm running it now. come on. i'll show you. >> as john drives me around the company, i come to understand the "jekyll and hyde" nature of his strange inheritance.

these look like cell towers. >> yeah, these are guide towers for wireless communication. and that's our main business now. >> but his dad built that business while indulging his industrial-strength urge for collecting. big stuff -- iron, scrap metal, machinery... things you can't squirrel away in a closet. take, john says, these assembly-line carts, please. did he really need this many? >> oh, my goodness. no. and he didn't need the ones that are out in the yard. we have dozens and dozens. >> it all starts with this serious little guy, elmer hemphill, born in 1935 on a farm near tryon, oklahoma, to parents elsie and marvel. >> he learned his work ethic from my grandparents because they believed in work. >> the hemphills, like other oklahomans, are hit by drought and dust storms during the great depression.

many of their neighbors flee to california. but they stay put. when elmer is just a kid, a stranger shows up at the farm to buy some hay. and the boy jumps at the chance to make a sale. >> i see you got four bales of hay there. >> my grandma looked outside, and he was talking to a guy that had shown up. >> how much you want for all four? >> for all four? >> she went out and asked if, uh, she could help him. and he said, "this young man's already taken care of it." turns out he did make a fair deal, probably better than grandpa would've made. but, uh... >> how old was he? >> she said he was 5 at the time. >> so he was a pint-sized deal maker. >> yes. >> at age 13, elmer convinces the town banker to give him a business loan. what is a 13-year-old borrowing money for? >> well, he was gonna use the money to buy registered sheep and raise 'em and sell 'em. and he made some good money. >> he had a mind like a steel trap. >> earl hart grew up with elmer,

and they became friends for life. >> elmer'd lay awake nights trying to think of a way to make a dollar. he was just determined to succeed. >> in 1953, the teenage entrepreneur heads to the big city, tulsa, with 600 bucks and a simple philosophy. >> it was "you never know how far a toad'll jump until you punch it." what it really meant was "you can't just sit back and hope things happen. you gotta go after it." and he was definitely one to punch the toad. >> like when he starts his own drilling company, then goes on to manufacture machine parts for aerospace and military applications. along the way, elmer gets married and starts a family. as soon as he's old enough, son john joins him in the business. signs of his dad's obsession are everywhere. john just doesn't yet see them. >> my first job was cutting weeds. and i remember a lot of the stuff that's still here back

in the '70s. having grown up with all this stuff, i really never thought of it as being as crazy as it was. >> no kidding. after all, business is booming. by the late 1970s, elmer's company has 150 employees. and his family's growing, too. four kids and then a brood of grandkids, including john's daughter, kristen, a chip off the ol' block, who learns about business and life from her papaw. sometimes he failed. >> and sometimes he really succeeded. but either way, he kept a good attitude. >> he also keeps that stubborn dust bowl "waste not, want not" mentality that increasingly baffles john. >> he would keep a piece of pipe that was, you know, 1 foot long. >> bigger stuff, too, like this defunct drilling rig purchased for 25k for a railroad project in west virginia back in 1967.

or this contraption that dates back to the '80s. >> he actually invented this drilling rig for a special project for the tulsa expo to lash on to a pier to help secure the foundation. >> the tulsa exposition center endures as a city symbol. the big rig just gathers dust. but john doesn't complain. no questions asked of dad? >> no questions asked, no. when he looks at something, he doesn't see what a lot of us see. he sees potential. >> in the mid-'80s, when the price of crude oil plummets, elmer punches another one of those toads and ends up in the business of building transmission towers for those newfangled cellphones. >> we started building cell tower sites, and we've been building 'em ever since. probably built about 5,000 of 'em. >> but with each new endeavor, elmer's stockpile of retired equipment gets taller and wider and, john knows,

increasingly irrelevant to the business at hand. what will hemphill ever do with these extra-large hydraulic rigs or thousands of feet of fencing? and is anyone saying at that point, "oh, my god, we gotta unload some of this stuff"? >> no. it was pretty much known that we just needed to put it where he wanted it put [laughs] and live with it. >> but living with it is about to become geometrically harder, for elmer's no longer content with stockpiling scrap and equipment left over from hemphill's own jobs. now he starts actually gobbling up other companies' junk just because. >> i don't care what it was. and if it was cheap enough, he'd buy it. and he said, "someday, it'll be worth something." >> that's next. >> but first,

our "strange inheritance" quiz question. radioshack, samsung or motorola? the answer after the break. [ applause ] thank you. it's an honor to tell you that liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. i love you! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ ♪another summer day is come and gone away♪

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♪i've had my fun baby i'm done♪ ♪i gotta go home ♪it will all be alright ♪i'll be home tonight ♪i'm comin back home this time of year, what do you give? when it's your extra concert, game or special event tickets to vet tix, you're giving our nation's service members and veterans an amazing experience they'll cherish forever. this holiday season, don't just give... vet tix. give something to those who gave. for more information on how you can make a difference right now, go to vettix.org. >> so, what company made the world's first mobile phone call in 1973?

it's "c," motorola. from a manhattan street corner, exec martin cooper called the headquarters of rival at&t to claim bragging rights. >> oklahoma business mogul elmer hemphill spends decades amassing a ginormous stash of industrial machinery, spare parts, and scrap metal that nobody, least of all his thriving company, really needs. having worked with his dad for years, elmer's son, john, is tiring of watching it all pile up. did he tell you what he was planning to do with it? >> he would always talk about how we could use it to build overhead bridge cranes and build fencing. >> but elmer's just a magnet that never lets anything go. eventually, he's drawn to other companies' scrap, like this plate-rolling system that elmer buys for $75,000, then puts out to pasture.

>> if it was a piece of metal, he'd take it. i don't care what it was. and if it was cheap enough, he'd buy it. and he said, "someday, it'll be worth something." >> "if only it were just metals," says his son, john. >> he used to say that if a, uh, trainload of pencils was cheap enough, he'd buy it. >> that pencil train never arrives. instead, elmer catches the ones full of tractor seats, file cabinets, and office chairs. i assume i've seen it all? >> oh, no. no, there's -- there's a whole bunch more. >> bolts, bricks, drill bits, chains, springs, trucks, trailers, you name it. it all seems so random. >> it definitely is. >> it looks like junk. but, to him, was it treasure? >> oh, it was definitely treasure. >> if there's a day when john realizes his shrewd businessman dad is also, let's just say it,

a hoarder on the industrial scale, it may be when this shipment arrives. what do we have here? >> these are, uh, machining tables from mcdonnell douglas. and they helped win the cold war. >> in what way? >> they were used to build the instruments and the parts for, uh, military aircraft. >> the cold war ends in 1991. but elmer's biggest hoarding years are still ahead of him. he grows his scrap collection to fill multiple warehouses and litter 40 acres of land surrounding his company headquarters. >> so, jamie, here's an interesting piece. and it's been sitting here for over 10 years. >> worth anything? >> it's really just scrap today. >> by this time, elmer's granddaughter, kristen, is trying to coax him to let go. >> something like this, you must've said to grandpa, "this can go, can't it?" >> yes. and we told him that a million times. >> but that old tulsa drilling

rig stays, like everything else, including elmer, into his 80s. he's always been an iron man. but now there's rust on his fenders and creaks in his hinges. >> and, uh, one day, i said, "elmer, why don't you retire?" "oh, i don't wanna retire." he said, "when i die, i wanna be walking across this shop floor." >> in february 2016, elmer l. hemphill passes away surrounded by friends and family at the age of 80. >> it was the night of the super bowl. my stepmom, audrey, was right beside him. but we knew that it was time for him to go. >> son john inherits the business and all that heavy metal his dad hoarded while running it. >> all this steel -- how much do you have? >> oh, i'd estimate probably about 3 million pounds. >> millions? that's amazing. >> it just grew and -- and grew and grew and, you know,

we just need to get rid of it. >> and he's going to leave that job to his heir, daughter kristen. >> my grandfather could be rolling in his grave right now. >> up next, getting on top of this heap. >> i've appraised everything in america that's ethical, moral, or legal. and when i saw hemphill's collection, i was overwhelmed. >> here's another quiz question for you. the st. louis gateway arch, the george washington bridge, or the beijing national stadium? the answer when we return. [female narrator] some missions don't take a holiday.

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>> so which architectural marvel

is the largest steel structure in the world? it's the beijing national stadium. dubbed the bird's nest, it was built for the 2008 olympics with 110,000 tons of steel. >> when elmer hemphill dies, he leaves his son john his oklahoma business empire. but the strange part of this inheritance is a stockpile of cast-off equipment, machine parts, steel, and scrap. it's a 3 million-pound headache. so john figures he'll leave that to his daughter, kristen, and son-in-law, jim. >> i told jim and kristen that if it's a project they wanted to tackle, that i'd love for them to see if they had ideas. >> i'm always interested in taking on new projects. so dad asked us. and we were crazy enough to do it. i really felt like i needed to step up and help my dad out and help the family. >> but you can't just call goodwill to pick it all up.

so, where to begin? did grandpa keep notes on all this stuff? >> he did, actually. in the back room, there is a library full of notes that papaw took about each project. >> so do they give values? were there bills of sale? >> no, there wasn't values. >> thank goodness for ebay. with a couple of mouse clicks, kristen finds out these antique carts, built to roll on railroad tracks, can fetch 1,500 bucks apiece. elmer has hundreds of 'em. and parts of the steel yard that look like scrap could be worth tens of thousands to individual buyers. kristen's thinking, "maybe grandpa elmer was right." and if she finds the right buyer, she'll turn his scrap iron into gold. but her husband, jim, weighs in with a reality check. there's 3 million pounds of this stuff! >> i don't wanna spend two or three years doing this.

>> so he and kristen approach kristen's dad with a proposal. how about a massive auction, on-site at hemphill and across the world on the internet? >> they said, "well, what would you think about auctioning it?" and i thought, "boy, i don't know if dad would want that." and then i went home that night and i'm thinking, "well, i don't know why i didn't think of that earlier." >> so kristen and jim call in various auction houses. the immediate response -- "you're nuts." >> most of the auctioneers that jim and kristen talked to basically said, "we can't handle this. this is way too much for us." >> when i saw hemphill's collection, i was overwhelmed. this has got to be the largest collection that i've ever seen in my life. >> louis dakil of dakil auctions in oklahoma city, however, is up for the challenge. >> i've appraised everything in america that's ethical, moral, or legal. and i said, "if you can organize it,

we can inventory it, and we can sell it." there's one saying we have in our industry -- you can't outlive iron. >> i have told 'em if we make some big money on it, great. and if we don't, it's okay. i think success is it being outta here. >> sounds like it's time to let the bidding begin. >> some things that i thought were, you know, potentially going in the trash are treasures to some people. >> that's next. what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com.

i want some more what's he doin? but, he can't look at him! it's just not done! please sir. i want some more more? more? more? more? please sir he has asked for... thank you what?

well he did say please sir yes he did and, thank you yeah. and thank you he's a wonderful boy (laugh) a delightful boy (all boys): thank you, thank you, thank you. drownings are a leading cause of death for young children. make sure kids learn how to swim. always watch them in and around water and properly fence all pools. simple steps saves lives. to learn some new ones visit poolsafely.gov

>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> in 2016, members of the hemphill family -- john, his daughter, kristen, and her husband, jim -- join forces to auction off 40 acres of cast-off machinery and equipment. it's a strange inheritance

left to john by his dad, an oklahoma businessman with a love for all things iron and steel. louis dakil of dakil auctions says most of the bidding will take place online. and the plan is everything sells, no matter the price. >> this auction is an absolute auction. no minimums. everything that goes on the block will be sold. >> it takes kristen and jim three months to itemize and catalog grandpa's gargantuan inventory of heavy metal. finally, in august 2016, the big moment is here. how many lots are we talking? >> 1,186 lots. >> one of the first items up for bid, this antique trailer, fetches 300 bucks. these 100-foot monopole towers left over from elmer's early days in the cell tower business

go for $230 each. things are selling fast, but cheap. >> i've been watching all morning, since 9:00. some things that i thought were gonna go for more are actually selling for less. >> [ auctioneer calling ] >> like these antique railroad carts, similar to one she saw on ebay for $1,000. hundreds sell, but for only 17 bucks apiece. >> [ auctioneer calling ] >> then there's that old railroad drilling rig, purchased in 1967 for 25k. it sells, but for only $4,000. and the gigantic plate-rolling system elmer bought in an old shipyard in south carolina for 75 grand sells for just 1,000. >> my grandfather could potentially be rolling in his grave right now. >> but kristen's delighted when this hydraulic plate shearer, designed to cut metal and alloy,

goes for $2,025. and that rig elmer designed for the tulsa expo building, it goes for 4k. >> i had no idea how much that was gonna sell for, so that was a surprise. >> over the next 48 hours, the hammer falls on thousands of items. >> we sold some things for $4,000. we sold some things for 50 cents. so the price range was pretty large. >> so are you guys exhilarated or exhausted? >> both. i would say both. [ laughs ] >> the grand total -- 175,000 bucks. not exactly petty cash. but considering the time, effort, and money elmer invested, they have to admit, this was one toad that didn't jump so far. >> they love their grandfather. they love their father. but basically, his perfect storm was buying and storing,

but never getting rid of anything. >> that's why, for john hemphill, the bottom line is all good. his strange inheritance is out the door. >> it's kind of, uh, oh, bittersweet because i know dad would wanna hang on to it. but i know it needs to be released. and ultimately, it's -- it's a good thing. >> back in 2013 when the hemphill corporation was renovating the office, elmer's kids surprised him with a gift befitting a successful entrepreneur -- a fancy desk, a big comfy chair and a flat-screen tv. elmer never touched it. instead, he took his ratty old desk, bought this second-hand trailer, put the desk inside, and drove around in it to every job site so he could be close to the action. and that's where you'd find him till the end of his days. 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.

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the way you saw them before they became ordinary. ♪i needed to try (amazement & laughter) ♪i needed to fall that's the goal. i'm looking for that experience of wonder. ♪i need never get old youtalk with your doctorers cabout creating a plan. that works better for you. start taking the right steps at manageyourbp.org frank: now i'm trying to get better. stronger than ever! >> 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. people don't want to talk about it.

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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.

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>> 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. your homes. lou dobbs is next. [♪] lou: good evening, everybody, the radical dimms are gasping in what i see as mortal pain as they behold president trump's rising levels of popularity, this achievement of more success and clear and unassailable case for reelection in 11 months. the economy under president trump is a runaway record breaker and so too are the markets. the trump economy creating 666,000 new jobs in the month of november, including 354,000 manufacturing jobs. the unemployment rate dropping