Zinc Coated Steel Penny 1943

The 1943 silver colored penny is a wartime coin issue made of steel and coated with zinc.

Zinc coated steel penny 1943.

This applies within and even beyond the numismatic realm. There are few vintage coins as widely collected as the 1943 steel penny. If it looks more like a common brownish penny it may be one of the rare copper 1943 pennies. During world war ii the war effort required a lot of copper to make shell casings and munitions.

Pennies in 1943 were supposed to be made of zinc coated steel and those grey colored cents are quite common. In 1943 the penny was made out of zinc plated steel to save copper for the war effort which is why most 1943 pennies are silver colored. Make offer usa 1943 s 1 cent zinc coated steel coin lincoln cent wheat ears reverse rare 1943 lincoln wheat penny zinc steel coin philadelphia mint collectible 7 95 13h 25m. Its zinc coated steel composition makes this coin resemble a dime more than a typical u s.

The philadelphia denver and san francisco mints each produced these 1943 lincoln cents the unique composition of the coin low grade steel coated with zinc instead of the previously 95 copper based bronze composition has led to various nicknames such as wartime cent steel war penny. 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. This unusual looking lincoln wheat cent is unlike any other united states one cent coin. As the 1943 steel pennies circulated the zinc coating started to turn dark gray and almost black.

If it is a silvery gray color it is probably a steel penny. One cent coins that were struck in steel due to wartime shortages of copper. According to the american numismatic association the 1943 copper alloy cent is one of the most idealized and potentially one of the most sought after items in american numismatics. In the year 1943 the unites states issued the steel penny because the copper was needed for world war ii the steel look is actually the result of the mint using a zinc coating.

1943 steel cents are u s. Nearly all circulating pennies at that time were struck in zinc coated steel because copper and nickel were needed for the allied war effort. 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. A few coins however were erroneously made of bronze the metal composition from the.

See photo above for actual example. During world war 2.