1943 steel cents are

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

one-cent coins that were struck in

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

due to wartime shortages of copper. The

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

mints A mint or breath mint is a food item often consumed as an after-meal refreshment or before business and social engagements to improve breath odor. Mints are commonly believed to soothe the stomach given their association with natural byproducts ...

each produced these 1943 Lincoln cents. The unique composition of the coin ( low-grade steel coated with

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

, instead of the previously 95%-copper-based bronze composition) has led to various nicknames, such as ''wartime cent'', ''steel war penny'', ''zinc cent'' and ''steelie''. The 1943 steel cent features the same

Victor David Brenner Victor David Brenner (born Avigdor David Brenner; June 12, 1871 – April 5, 1924) was an American sculptor, engraver, and medalist known primarily as the designer of the United States Lincoln Cent. Biography Brenner was born to Jewish parents ...

design for the

Lincoln cent The Lincoln cent (sometimes called the Lincoln penny) is a one-cent coin that has been struck by the United States Mint since 1909. The obverse or heads side was designed by Victor David Brenner, as was the original reverse, depicting two stalks ...

which had been in use since 1909.

History

Due to wartime needs of

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

for use in

ammunition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weap ...

and other military equipment during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the

United States Mint The United States Mint is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury responsible for producing coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce, as well as controlling the movement of bullion. It does not produce paper money; tha ...

researched various ways to limit dependence and meet conservation goals on copper usage. After trying out several substitutes (ranging from other metals to plastics) to replace the then-standard

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

alloy, the one-cent coin was minted in

-coated

. This alloy caused the new coins to be magnetic and 13% lighter. They were struck at all three mints:

, and

. As with the bronze cents, coins from the latter two sites have respectively "D" and "S"

mintmark A mint mark is a letter, symbol or an inscription on a coin indicating the mint where the coin was produced. It should not be confused with a mintmaster mark which is the mark of the mintmaster. History Mint marks were first developed to locate ...

s below the date. However, problems began to arise from the mintage. Freshly minted, they were often mistaken for dimes. Magnets in

vending machine A vending machine is an automated machine that provides items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or otherwise made. The fir ...

s (which took copper cents) placed to pick up steel

slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a smal ...

s also picked up the legitimate steel cents. Because the

galvanization Galvanization or galvanizing (American and British English spelling differences, also spelled galvanisation or galvanising) is the process of applying a protective zinc coating to steel or iron, to prevent rusting. The most common method is hot ...

process did not cover the edges of the coins, sweat would quickly rust the metal. After public outcry, the Mint developed a process whereby salvaged brass shell casings were augmented with pure copper to produce an alloy close to the 1941–42 composition. This was used for 1944–46-dated cents, after which the prewar composition was resumed. Although they continued to circulate into the 1960s, the mint collected large numbers of the 1943 cents and destroyed them. The steel cent is the only regular-issue United States coin that can be picked up with a magnet. The steel cent was also the only coin issued by the United States for circulation that does not contain any copper. (Even U.S. gold coins at various times contained from slightly over 2% copper to an eventual standard 10% copper to increase resistance to wear by making the pure gold coins slightly harder).

Related variations

1943 copper cent

Far ahead of the

1955 doubled die cent Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first Nuclear marine propulsion, nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18� ...

in rarity, the 1943 copper cent is one of the notable rarities of the Lincoln cent series. An estimated 40 examples are believed to have been struck, with 13 confirmed to exist. The error occurred when copper

planchet A planchet is a round metal disk that is ready to be struck as a coin. An older word for planchet is flan. They are also referred to as blanks. History The preparation of the flan or planchet has varied over the years. In ancient times, the ...

s were left in the press hopper and press machines during the changeover from copper to steel blanks. Examples were discovered after the War, with the first two in 1947, and another in 1958. That example appeared in a 1958 Abe Kosoff sale, but was withdrawn prior to the sale; one mint condition Denver Mint specimen sold for over $1.7 million in 2010.

Counterfeits

Many people have counterfeited the coin by either copper-plating normal 1943 cents (sometimes as novelties with no intent to defraud), or altering cents from the period, usually 1945, 1948, or 1949-dated coins. The copper cents differ from their steel counterparts in four ways: * Genuine 1943 copper cents will not be attracted to a magnet. Copper-plated steel cents will exhibit a strong magnetic attraction. * Copper cents weigh 3.11 grams. Steel cents weigh 2.702 grams. * The numeral 3 in 1943 has the same long tail as the steel cents. Alterations from later-dated copper cents will be noticeable when compared side by side with genuine cents with years ending in 3. * The quality of the strike is exceptionally sharp, especially around the rim, because the soft copper planchets were struck with the same (higher) pressure used for the steel cents.

1943 tin cent

In 2019, NGC authenticated a worn 1943 cent composed of 86.41%

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

and 8.37%

antimony Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient time ...

with other trace metals. The coin was discovered by a coin collector in the state of Oregon, who found it in his father's yard and realized it was not attracted to a magnet while searching his coin collection for 1943 copper cents in 2019. It is likely that the coin is an error or was intentionally struck as a pattern in late 1942 using an obverse die intended for the following year, though no documented evidence of a pattern with this composition has been found. The coin was found in a badly damaged state, with two large gashes and a slight bend. Believing it to be a steel cent, the discoverer straightened the coin in a bench vise so that it would fit inside a coin album. The coin weighs 2.702 g.

1944 steel cent

In an error similar to the 1943 cents, a few 1944 cents were struck on steel planchets left over from 1943. There are two explanations given for why this happened. One explanation is that steel planchets were left in the press hopper and press machines from the previous year mixed in with copper planchets. Another explanation credits the error to the production of 25 million

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

two franc pieces by the Philadelphia mint after that country's liberation from the Nazis. These coins were of the same composition and the same planchets as the 1943 cents, but they differed slightly in weight. In all, 1944 steel cents are fewer in number than their 1943 copper counterparts, and are even more valuable; one such example minted in San Francisco sold for $373,750 in an August 2008 auction held by

Heritage Auctions Heritage Auctions is an American multi-national auction house based in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 1976, Heritage is an auctioneer of numismatic collections, comics, fine art, books, luxury accessories, real estate, and memorabilia from film, mu ...

; this was the highest auction price ever for a Lincoln cent until September 23, 2010, when it was superseded by a 1943-D bronze penny.

Cost of mintage

Although United States penny is widely known to hold a higher mintage cost than its face value, the United States actually made a large profit on minting steel coins. In 1943, the cost of a gross ton of steel was $34. With a composition of 2.67498 grams of steel making up 99% of the coin, the 1943 steel penny only cost roughly one-ten-thousandth of a dollar.

Novelty coins

Since many steel cents corroded and became dull soon after entering circulation, some dealers who sold the coins as novelties improved their appearance by "reprocessing" – stripping off the old zinc coating and then replating them with zinc or chrome. These reprocessed coins are sometimes erroneously described as ''brilliant uncirculated'', or similar terms, by ignorant or unscrupulous online sellers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1943 Steel Cent Steel cent Currencies introduced in 1943 One-cent coins of the United States Cultural history of World War II Abraham Lincoln in art