Stop concerning yourself so much with value and try to focus on the cause. In this case simply ask yourself what is more likely: that the detailed coin was stuck on a dime planchet, or that it was simply plated.
The brilliance of the coin leads me to believe the coin has been plated. Nickel is magnetic and even a small depth of plating will stick to a magnet. Nickel plating of sterling silver jewelry or silver coins allows rhodium plating to adhere better to the silver and you see this quite often. Plating coins can confuse a new collector into thinking they have an off metal strike. Some dishonest bullion dealers will use a magnet on silver jewelry that has been rhodium plated to prevent tarnish and then tell the seller the chain is steel. The seller will tell the dealer OK, it's junk and leaves the jewelry behind. The dishonest dealers then cashes in.
I have about a dozen 1943 and 1943d pennies that look just like these. I thought they were zinc plated. Will put a magnet on them!
TonyBronx...they are most probably reprocessed coins. The tip-offs are the beautiful, clean plating, non-magnetic and non-rusted, plated edges. You will also see errors in the plating. I have 27 of these that were gifted to me, and about half of them have metal shards affecting the date. They are sold as novelty coins for about a dollar, and are used by coin companies to fill holes in wheat ear sets they sell so they don't have to give you a real one. Normal zinc-coated steel cents from 1943 will have a bluish- grey cast to them and have non- plated edges. The non-plated edges were their achilles heel: the sheets to produce the planchets were zinc-plated before the planchets were punched out leaving the core steel vulnerable to oxidative deterioration...they rusted quickly. Very hard to find pristine, rust-free coins unless they were from a hoard. Americans, paradoxically, both loved and hated the coin. They hoarded the coin knowing it to be a collectible but hated it because it got confused with dimes. Also, they caused havoc with vending machines. Back then, pennies were accepted by machines, but the zinc cents would be rejected as slugs. Then the rust effects began to surface...and the next thing you know the Mint weenies had the light-bulb go on and realized their mistake and went back to copper alloy.
