1943 Zinc Penny
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The "out of place" 1943 Zinc Penny fascinates new collectors (if they have ever seen one).
Specifications
- Designer: Victor David Brenner
- Obverse Design: Abraham Lincoln Bust
- Reverse Design: "Wheat Ear" and Lincoln Memorial
- Edge: Plain
- Weight: ±2.7 grams
- Diameter: ±19 millimeters
- Composition: Steel (100%), coated with a thin layer of Zinc
- Dates Minted: 1943
History
In the late 1960's and early 1970's, popular magazines and comic books carried big advertisements from a major coin company. In one of those advertisements, it showed a black and white photo of a Lincoln cent with a 1943 date. Next to the picture, the ad copy bellowed: “WE’LL PAY YOU $10,000 FOR THIS LINCOLN PENNY!” No doubt, thousands of people all over the country saw this ad and thought to themselves, “Hey! I HAVE a 1943 penny!” Of course, those folks who put out the ad were looking for a very RARE 1943 penny– not the kind 99.99999999 percent of the population had sitting in a keepsakes box. I seriously doubt anyone collected that $10,000 from the coin company. In fact, I can only imagine the avalanche of phone calls, letters and 1943 Lincoln cents (the wrong ones) that must have overwhelmed the folks at that coin company who put out the ad!
Of course the 1943 penny the folks who put out that ad were looking for was NOT the peculiar blue-looking 1943 Lincoln cent that most Americans had put away as a souvenir. The RARE 1943 penny (more correctly, cent) is one made mostly of copper– only around 40 are known to exist! The COMMON 1943 Lincoln cent is the one with the steel core and zinc-coated surface. It’s blue! Because it’s blue and because it’s so rarely seen in change, the man-on-the-street often assumes the zinc-coated 1943 cent is the rare one!
Of course it was World War II that prompted the U.S. Mint to strike these “wartime cents.” Copper (and nickel) was desperately needed for the war effort. So in December of 1942, legislation was passed approving a wartime cent– one made with a core of low-grade steel and an outer coat of zinc. This new wartime cent would be lighter than the standard copper U.S. cent which weighed 48 grains. The new wartime cent would weigh only 42 grains. In February of 1943, production began for the new cent. Mintages were astronomically high: the Philadelphia mint produced over 684 million cents, the Denver mint struck over 217 million cents, and the San Francisco mint churned out over 191 million wartime cents. Of course, due to these high mintages, there are plenty of 1943 zinc-coated steel cents around today– even though many were lost to attrition due to the rapid deterioration of the outer zinc coating in adverse atmospheric conditions.
True, it IS rare to find the 1943 steel cents in circulation these days. But as so many dealers have a number of them in stock, prices remain low today. Even in basic uncirculated condition, they retail just a little over $1, though the 1943-S retails a little over $3. A circulated 1943 steel cent in Fine condition retails for only 25 cents!
There were actually NOT supposed to be any 1943 copper Lincoln cents struck, but as has happened so many times in U.S. Mint history, someone got hold of some dies and struck the rare pieces. The 1943 copper cents are so valuable as to not even be listed in price guides. Suffice it to say, if you wanted to buy one, you’d probably need to cough up considerably more than the $10,000 that coin company was going to pay in the late 60's and early 70's!
Have You Ever Seen a 1943 Silver Penny? Video
Collecting
Be careful– oftentimes, a steel 1943 Lincoln cent can strongly resemble a copper 1943 Lincoln cent. Many steel cents have been copper-coated over the years in attempts to pass these pieces off as rarities. Also, sometimes when the zinc coating of the steel cents wears off, the cent can take on a brown-ish appearance. Many a would-be millionaire has had their heart-broken when they were told in no uncertain terms, that their million-dollar 1943 copper cent was, in fact, a 1943 steel cent worth less than one dollar! So how to truly the tell the difference? The best way is the magnet test. If your 1943 cent sticks to a magnet, it’s the common 1943 zinc-coated steel cent. If it does NOT, then you MAY have the rare 1943 copper cent. BUT GET IT AUTHENTICATED BY AN EXPERT ANYWAY!
After 1943, the brown-colored Lincoln cent returned, though it still differed from the standard Lincoln cents of 1909-43. The 1944 and 1945 Lincoln cents were actually made from spent shell cases from the war, thus, these were not taking away from the war effort. Instead, the 1944 and 1945 cents were recycling the war effort. Interestingly, there is a 1944 Lincoln cent rarity– the REVERSE of the 1943 rarity. Someone at the Mint got hold of the 1944 cent dies and used them on the 1943 steel alloys, thus creating a few unapproved 1944 zinc-coated steel cents. These cents are even rarer than the copper 1943 cents, but not as widely known.
Price Guide
Mints
- Philadelphia Mint (No mintmark)
- Denver Mint (D mintmark)
- San Francisco Mint (S mintmark)
External Links
- CoinFacts.com Lincoln Cents, Wheat Ear Reverse (1909-1958)
- USMintQuarters.com STEEL Wartime Pennies
