1974 Bronze Penny

[chemlabrat]

This is a hypothetical story... The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

A friend of mine... let's call him jimlabrat, glanced down at some loose change the other day and noticed that one of the pennies in his pocket was very bright and oddly colored. Upon further inspection, he noticed that the penny was a 1974... which was strange because it was much more luminous than the other new pennies he had. When compared to them, it wasn't even the same color. It was a bronze color. So he decided to do some research. After reading around on the internet he came across the story of the 1974 penny.

At the time, the price of copper had increased so much that alternative methods of producing a penny were being considered. About 1.5 million pennies were reportedly made in aluminum. They then realized that it wasn't going to pass legislation to make the new pennies, and they weren't circulated. All of the pennies made were destroyed except for a handful. A dozen of the pennies were given to the heads of congress, various other important people, and most of them now reside in museums, such as the Smithsonian. Then, in 1994, a man submitted a coin he had to Coin World. It was a bronze 1974 penny. It was the first anyone had ever heard of a bronze clad 1974 penny. The man had the coin since 1974, and he worked at the steel mill that was responsible for destroying the coins. He reported that one bag of the bronze coins that were to be destroyed had broken open and all of the coins were not recovered.

Reference for the above story:
1974 One Cent

Now having said all that... suppose this jimlabrat had happened upon a coin he was convinced was a bronze 1974 penny. It is illegal to own one of the aluminum or bronze pennies, since it was never released into circulation it is still government property. So... what would you do? Or does anyone think jimlabrat may be getting excited for no reason and you have a good explanation for it?