I have one set of these that were gifted to me but as I opened a roll, standing out like a sore thumb lol. A fun surprise. I had forgotten I had two from dad’s before plating. 1943 Lincoln Wheat Cents look like "silver pennies" but they are actually made out of steel. During World War, The US needed to allocate as much copper as possible for the war effort and this included copper used for minting Lincoln Cents at the US Mint. Zinc-coated steel was used as the substitute metal composition and hence the new silver-like coin is known as the wartime steel cent or steel penny.
Very nice for a roll find. I think that one has been reprocessed (replated), but so what. I'll bet it really did stick out like a sore thumb! All of the ones I have found in circulation were battleship grey and/or rusty.
Nice! I think reprocessed also. The edge, side #3, tells that tale. If it’s shiny, replated. Steel sheets were plated with zinc then the round blanks were punched out
One of the signs of replating is the edge. The original planchets were stamped out of a sheet of steel coated on both sides with a layer of zinc. As the blank was punched out of the sheet, the two faces were zinc-coated but the edges were still just plain steel. These were common in circulation into the 1960’s. After all, that was just 20 years later. However, many were beginning to rust. Enterprising folks took the aging coins and made them look new again by adding a thin shiny plating. You can easily see the plating on the edges of your roll find because they are so shiny and not dull. The reprocessed coin could be a good one to find. A raw steelie would probably be in really rough shape by now, so the replating could have saved it for you to find!
Here’s an ordinary steel cent that was removed from circulation after it had started to rust through its zinc coating.
Keep the Reprocessed Cent separate and compare all other steel cents to it. I believe somewhere in my collection I have a little plastic box labeled - 1943 P, D & S Cents. All reprocessed. Wartime Steel Cents. Thanks for sharing.
I want to tell you something I believe I've shared before.. In the latin community there have been a lot of new collectors that confuse the story of 1943 Cents. They think the steel Cent they have in their possession which they call "Centavo de Acero" is extremely rare and somehow they confuse the story about the 1943 Copper Cent. So they think that the 1943 Steelie could be worth $500,000 to a million dollars .. unfortunately I have to break the news to them and explain the difference. Pam, I've been cursed out in Spanish. I've been sent to hell. I've been only thanked by very few. I've even seen videos in Spanish posted of the happiness they have believing that all their financial cares will soon be gone. Triste.. means sad. One of the biggest problems are the YouTube channels in Spanish with a lot of misinformation! That's how it starts.
Well I knew it was just a fun find! I don’t think I posted it stating I was rich lol. Hope not! I remember when first coming to CT I had a golden toned cent in my dad’s jar, a “penny” I called it then but got corrected in English lol. You were probably one of the members lol! It was plated with something. But I thought it was something. To save financial needs, nope! Worth about a cent! Not all can be so lucky that can take a daily walk and run into a tin can of millions of dollars in old gold coins on their property. I bet they walk daily now! No doubt when you have to burst someone’s bubble it puts them into that mode. For some you can say it as gentle as possible but if they think it’s blue and you say red, they will still see blue. I have probably thought it was blue for a bit on CT until I learned some of the coin world. ! If that makes sense. I always say “it’s not what one says it’s how” but again it does not matter, it’s still blue for some! I won’t curse you in English nor Spanish. I Can only Thank you in English. Thank you! ser feliz- Be Happy!
