Steel Pennies

[bellhunter53]

My father and I had been reading this site for months now and have been hunting for coins. Mainly "wheaties" but have also gone through a couple of cases of halves. Anyways, today we decided to dump last nights case of pennies and get some more. It was getting late in the day and when we got our case, we started home and opened to find a case of 2006s strait from the press. THe banks were already closed, so we decided to hit up a local grocery to buy some loose. To our amazment, there was a small bank branch in the store and I bought all the loose rolls that they had. I got $10 dollars worth and when we goy home, we opened and $4 out of the $10 had come from the same person. (the account # had been left on the rolls). There ended up being 19 1943 steel pennies, 1 1941 Canadian King George, and a 1935 wheatie. What is the rarity of the steel and what is the value? THank you for reading, and good luck hunting!

 

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[Charlie P. (NY)]

They only minted about 1,000,000,000 (684,628,670 P , 217,660,000 D & 191,550,000 S) so they are not any less common than any given year of cents. Some of the mintages from the 10's and 20's had much lower mintages. Probably more coins with a '43 date than ALL cents minted from 1909 to 1917.

Value is maybe 25¢ to $1 each (condition is everything - could be more if really crisp). With that many you should check the '43Ds for a double mint-mark. They're worth $30 to $100 in circulated grades.

Good finds.

 

[MalteseFalcon]

I have a set of them I bought in the early 70s. Looks to me like the D might be a double mint mark. They are all three in BU condition. Brand new looking, and are in the same holder. A P mintmark, a D, and an S.

Someday I might sell. I have half a dozen others that are in standard circulated condition, most with a bit of rust/corrosion. I would not expect them to be worth much more than face.

 

[fiatboy]

They're not that rare, in general. But finding steel pennies in circulation is pretty difficult now. Grade/condition seems to be especially important for these pennies. For me, about one out of every 50 wheaties is a steel penny. And I've only ever found one that still looks shiny. 19 steel pennies is just insane. You really lucked out!