The steel penny may seem like a random anomaly to some. Yet the coin has a vital connection to an international historical event. The steel cent was produced during the height of World War II. This global conflict saw the United States military's involvement from through These materials, including copper and nickel, were used for producing ammunition and artillery. However, copper and nickel were also integral in making coins.
Thus, alternative metals were considered for minting coins. These coins traditionally consisted mostly of copper and nickel. Therefore, the Lincoln cent and Jefferson nickel became prime targets for temporary but necessary metallic alterations.
This paved the way for an emergency composition for the one-cent coin as well. A litany of tests and patterns followed for the emergency composition, including plastic and glass. The most cost-effective replacement metal for the Lincoln cent was determined to be a low-grade steel planchet.
These zinc-coated steel planchets represented an efficient and affordable avenue for making the pennies and rationing copper for the war effort.
However, many in the public were less than thrilled with the alternative composition. The steel cents were often confused with the dime, causing some folks to lose 9 cents or more in a cash transaction. The coining press struck the copper planchets with the date. Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco all produced these ultra rare copper pennies. In the mint switched back to using copper to produce the pennies.
Once again, the totes contained a few zinc-coated steel planchets stuck in the crevices. The coining presses then produced pennies on zinc-coated steel planchets instead of bronze planchets. Both of these errors are extremely rare, but if you think you might have a copper penny or a steel penny, here's how to find out if your copper penny is genuine. In fact, it may be one of the most valuable pennies ever!
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However, many wartime steel cents were saved, though most were not in good condition because their zinc and steel composition reacts poorly over time. Lower-grade examples are worth less than a dollar each since they are plentiful. Very high mint state coins in MS68 run many thousands of dollars each since examples in that state of preservation are scarce. These wartime steel pennies are also important to numismatic history because there are some exceptionally rare cents from this era that were made in error using the wrong materials — most notably the copper pennies and the steel cents.
An estimated 40 examples of the copper cents were said to exist according to the late coin expert Walter Breen , but Q. David Bowers has noted that he does not believe there is evidence to support this number and thinks there are fewer of them. The first examples surfaced in the s. A total of perhaps 20 to 30 of these copper cents were minted cumulatively at the Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco Mints.
Always worth big money, this error has commanded prices as high as seven figures. Many people hear that there is a rare penny out there and therefore assume all pennies are valuable.
Others still confuse the steel penny pictured below as the rare coin because of its unusual appearance as a silvery-colored Lincoln cent. Does your penny stick to a magnet? What does your cent weigh? You must use a scale that measures down to at least a tenth-of-a-gram increments. Those cents weighing in increments of a gram will give a false positive here because of rounding. Any differences here suggest the coin may have been altered to appear as a copper cent. Any differences here on a suspected copper cent should send up huge red flags.
You still need to make sure the coin is authentic! Even if the coin you believe to be a copper cent checks out with your own tests—meaning it is NOT magnetic and weighs about 3.
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