Anyone ever dig a 1943 copper penny?

[Silverseeker]

An old friend of mine just called me up and told me that his son had found a small tin of wheat cents out in the desert. He said that one of them was a 1943 copper penny. He said he was so excited he was shaking.

Anyways, he asked me to come over and take a look at it and see if it was real. I was pretty excited for him and really hoped it was. The first thing I did was weigh it on my reloading scale, and it was a tad bit too light to be copper. So I was skeptical, but he was still optimistic. Then I felt stupid when I realized the only test we needed was a magnet.

My poor friend was heartbroken when it stuck to the magnet. I kinda felt his pain, as it looked pretty damned real. Anyways, he got to taste the excitement us treasure hunters feel every time we unearth a coin.

So, out of curiosity.....have any of you ever dug a real 1943 copper cent?

 

[Jack(IN)]

Re: A treasure tale

The only time I found some 1943 wheats came when a friend from IL invited me to hunt his neighbors house. He had been over it a few times with his XLT and wanted to see what I would find. I hit a spot by a tree where I had a strange signal, called him over and asked if he would dig this and received a no answer!! I ended up digging 54 coins from that signal, a total of 1 silver roosie, 3 Mercs, 2 War Nickels, 1 46 nickel, 1 Buffalo Nickel, and 46 wheats, including 6 totally ruined steel cents. Anybody who knows TerryN(IL) from a couple forums can ask about that, he was the one who invited me and was right there watching!!

***Note*** These were not the copper variety, but the steel cent, guess I should do a little more reading before posting!!

 

[treasurefiend]

a 1943 copper lincoln cent is worth atleast $10,000. A few made it out of the mint, but I mean just a few...

 

[alpha105]

Is there something im missing.....why is 1943 so rare?

 

[Sylth]

A 1943 steel cent isn't that rare (tho it is a nice find in my opinion). What they're referring to are the very very very few 1943 COPPER cents that managed to get out of the mint. As mentioned above, they are worth big bucks

I actually ran across a fake last summer; I was going through a collection of coins given to my cousin by our grandfather, and not 5 min after I was reminded to look for '43 copper pennies, I found one. Too bad it, too, stuck to a magnet

HH

 

[creeper71]

Is there something I'm missing.....why is 1943 so rare?

I'm not a expert at all but I think due to a copper shortage cause of the war... They used steel instead of the usual copper!

 

[True_Metal]

Is there something I'm missing.....why is 1943 so rare?

I'm not a expert at all but I think due to a copper shortage cause of the war... They used steel instead of the usual copper!

They were struck accidently and were never supposed to be issued. Only steel cents from that year. Only 40 are known to exist and the last one to sell in 1996 went for $82,500.00

My grandfather ran across one in 1962 from a lady that recieved it change in front of him in line at a grocery store.
He told her he collected coins and that he needed that date and asked to see the coin. He handled the coin (He swore to me that it was the real mcoy) and got overly excited and offered her 10 bucks on the spot. She got wise and declined the offer and left, never to be seen again.

They're out there so keep your eyes open

 

[Old Dog]

The 1943 Lincoln Cent is unique because to divert the copper to the War effort and make brass for shell casings. They made the One Cent coin from steel planchettes that were zinc plated.
The test coins from a couple of the mints got out and several have been found.
The last one found was from the Denver Mint an was sold for an astronomical sum.

The easy way to beat the counterfeiters is to see if it sticks to a magnet.

Yes they still copper plat the steel ones as counterfeits trying to fool folks looking for that ...
"something for nothing".

A magnet will tell the whole story.

Added bit of trivia... Lincoln Cents minted from 1944 to 1946 were made from salvaged brass shell casings.
they were bronze, not copper.

Thom

 

[tchaire]

A little more trivia...Taken from the Coin World website regarding the 1944-46 cents:

"The amount of copper needed for the cent coinage far outstripped the supply of shell casings and had to be supplanted by additional copper. Lange suggests that the use of the shell casings had more use as propaganda and morale boosting than any practical purpose."

T.

 

[l.cutler]

Actually Lincoln cents from 1909 until 1962 were made of bronze, except the war time cents. The 1943 was steel of course and the "shell casing" cents of 1944 to 1946 had added brass from the shell casings. In 1962 the zinc was removed from the composition making them brass. No copper cents were made since the early large cent days.

 

[MonkeyBoy]

I read, not sure if it was true.. that the copper '43 were the copper planchants left in the hoppers of the machines when thwy ended the rund in '42. They are too hard to get back out of the machine once they have been fed into the feeding tubes, so they ;eft them ine that would account for there only being a few hundred. I went through a bug error coin collecting phase!! Still have a nice microscope I use to use!!!

MonkeyBoy

 

[Evolution]

Actually Lincoln cents from 1909 until 1962 were made of bronze, except the war time cents. The 1943 was steel of course and the "shell casing" cents of 1944 to 1946 had added brass from the shell casings. In 1962 the zinc was removed from the composition making them brass. No copper cents were made since the early large cent days.

This is not true. They were made of .950 copper and .050 tin and zinc. Indian head cents on the other hand were made of bronze.....except from the middle of 1864 back to 1859. Those were copper/nickel. The two cent pieces were made of bronze too.

additionally:

1959-1982.....950 copper/.050 tin and zinc (no brass)
1982-present... .975 zinc and .025 copper.

 

[Kas]

On the other side of the coin, when the mint returned to copper coinage, from the steel blanks, some steel blanks found their way into the '44 run.
The most common fakes include those that where plated with mercury. Again, a magnet worked to determine if it was steel or not.

 

[allen]

thank you all for alot of info that i did not know.
So, copper doesnt stick to a magnet ?

 

[l.cutler]

95% copper and 5% tin and zinc is bronze. 1909 to 1961cents, other than the wartime cents, were the same composition as the bronze Indian cents. Bronze is generally an alloy of Copper and tin in varying amounts. In 1962 the tin was removed leaving only copper and zinc, making it brass.

 

[Fish-Gate]

Arg... Just get a Red book (has coin mintages and metal compositions). I once claimed to find one copper and one silver coin on this site, which equaled 7 cents. I was put in my place by a guy who said that 2 cent coins were NOT COPPER. Well, he neglected to mention that the silver coin was NOT SILVER either (~90% silver, 10% copper). The point is, when most of us say "copper" and "silver", we aren't trying to be spock-like about the compositions...

 

[Old Dog]

some times people in their quest to be the perfect info givers,
pick absolutely too many nits.

when we do that the find can lose the "Fun" aspect,
and the finder won't post his next find because of it.

Listen you guys, I don't care if you only got some can slaw,
and a bucket full of pulltabs.
Please feel free to post away.
I really do look.
I may not say anything... but I will look.

Thom

 

[49r Relics]

some times people in their quest to be the perfect info givers,
pick absolutely too many nits.

when we do that the find can lose the "Fun" aspect,
and the finder won't post his next find because of it.

Listen you guys, I don't care if you only got some can slaw,
and a bucket full of pulltabs.
Please feel free to post away.
I really do look.
I may not say anything... but I will look.

Thom

Well Said

HH, Mark

 

[l.cutler]

Hey I surrender! Sorry not really a nit picker, but as a 40 year numismatist I may get carried away with facts from time to time! Get a couple numismatists together in conversation and we can put you to sleep in a hurry! It is all about having fun, and as long as we are all doing that is all that counts.

 

[treasurefiend]

Let me lighten the mood with a true story:

LOL I used to be able to tell people all kinds of coin fact about pretty much all of the US coins and bore the hell out of people. I had my parents get me a subscription to Coinage magizine to, just so I could learn more. (is that still in print?)

LOL, you want to talk about a coin nerd... I got my first job just so I could get an old Double Eagle when I was 16. I worked at a bowling alley part-time as a "pin chaser"/ "bar boy" LOL My local coin shop was cool, I was in there all of the time, so they let me put 1 on lay-a-way for almost 3 months. I finally got it, but like a dummy I sold it so I could get my first car (girls can make you do some crazy things). I think I paid like $350 for the coin back in 1990's. The car lasted just about 500 miles... LOL

I also look at almost all of the posts. I like them all. 95% of my posts have clad in them. Every once in a while I get lucky and find something old or worth more than its face value.

If I would of kept it I could of made some money. LOL A huge laps in my collecting judgement...