1943 copper cent - nonmagnetic

hi all! Looking for some input on a 1943 “copper” cent I came across. I purchased an old book of cents from eBay. Description stated “3 steel pennies,” but upon receiving it the first was definitely not steel. Passes the magnet test, weight is proper, and the 3 is legit as well.

Thoughts? Worth submitting for grading?

Thanks!

 

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Which test did you perform and what was the result? Did it stick or not?

Edit - forget it. Just read your title again. You say its non magnetic.

I'm actually then staying away from this one..
I don't need the anxiety at this moment..

 

We need better images of both the obverse and the reverse.

 

What does it weigh?
What Larry said. You must try to get clear photos of both sides.

 

did it come from china?

 

While a new discovery is possible, there are a million fakes and altered coins,
and if it's not steel, that's almost always what it is.
It doesn't hurt anything to keep an open mind and wait for good photos and a weight.

 

Some more here; I’ll have to pull out my good camera and get some much better ones.

 

3.1g and I am working on getting some better pictures.

 

Came from Maryland in a vintage Whitman book.

 

Should have some tonight or by the morning!

 

The photo of the '3' doesn't inspire confidence. 43 coppers converted from 48 are quite plentiful and scary as to closeness.

China knows what thieves want , and getting better at it. several different copies. One may need to use the known markers.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/FRE...lgo_pvid=4bed589f-1ec6-489e-8be3-8774fbee05ce

 

I feel the same.. Something strange about it

 

Wouldn’t a shaved 8 be level with the 4 in lieu of swooping down?

 

While the weight is correct the 3 looks bad. It's a different color.
It's wonky as if it was added on to another 194- coin.

The 3 should look like:

 

In the second set of pix. In the second pic, the 3 looks altered, as if it were an 8 that had been cut and ground off and then the remaining bottom of the loop expanded to get to where the bottom of a 3 normally is.


There are plenty of tools available to do that with and plenty of incentive to do it and plenty of unsuspecting, and easily fooled people, who, through their willingness to unknowingly buy such altered coins, help keep such shenanigans alive and well.

That's my Lincoln cent's worth.

 

This was just left in a book from an estate sale lot on eBay that I paid $2 for.

 

In the pic posted by Michael, can you see the darker area right above the lower loop of the 3?
Could that be where the bottom of an 8 was before it was bumped/prodded down to it's present location?

 

Neville, I'm not saying you did anything. I think we're all just "supposing" how this coin came about.

Maybe, just maybe, you have one of those extremely rare to the nth degree cents that every penny searcher dreams of finding.

But then again, probably not.

As far as I'm concerned, I hope you have the Real Deal.

 

Most people would be surprised at the ease of moving copper that height around with a minimum of evidence with years of professional practice as engravers. Some of those old timers, it is said added mint marks to copper and silver coins ( mainly cents and dimes) by drilling a small hole in the edge and then raising the mint mark from inside without breaking the surface. Sometimes, I wonder what a modern surgical robot could do along those lines. Need a VDB added to your 09? jim