I recently came into possession of a 1943 copper Lincoln cent. I have several 1943 steel cents, and this one looks identical to them. At first I was thinking it may be copper plated, but it's not. It does not stick to a magnet, while the steel ones do. I then questioned it as being a modified "8"...nope, not that either. It looks identical to a '43 steel cent. I scanned it in at 4800DPI for clarity purposes, and have uploaded it to image shack, since it is too large for this website. If you would enlighten me as to if it is real or not, I'd appreciate it. Thanks in advance. -Justin
To me, the date looks faked. The "4" and "3" are close together. But the "9" and "4" are far apart. They should be equally spaced. The diagonal bar on the 4 should be perfectly straight, but it is curved on that coin. I think someone took a 1953 and changed the 5 into a 4.
The chances of this being a real '43 copper cent are about the same as winning a state lottery,slim to none. As you may know,there are only a handful of these that have ever been found. Read this: http://www.coinsite.com/content/faq/1943copper.asp Then compare the date on this photo of a real one and decide for yourself.
How is the "5" changed to a "4"? Not doubting your word, but to me the "4" is more like the real "4"...well let me stick my foot in my mouth - I didn't bother to scan the '43 steels and here is one I found http://www.coincommunity.com/images/coins/cents/1943_steel_lincoln_cent_obverse.JPG If anything, I would say the "3" on mine is altered....what the....? OK, 1953 copper http://www.coppercoins.com/lincoln/1953/1953p1do001pm.jpg The "3" looks identical to the one I have....but the thing I don't get is how the "5" got altered into a "4"???
Dcarr, I agree, it is a 1953 that has been altered. The diagonal of the 4 should be strait like you mentioned. Additionally the 3 is not properly shaped for a 1943 cent; it does exactly match the shape of a 3 from a 1953 cent though. Sorry about the bad news lowe_j_d, but the coin is altered. The good news is that if you list it on ebay as an altered coin it should sell for a few dollars to either a scam artist or a collector of novelties.
The easiest way is to take a chisel type tool and scratch the 5 off, then do the same to a similar 1940's cent and then use a glue of some sort to attach the 4 to the 53 cent (which is now without a tens digit numeral.
Thanks guys, I didn't have my hopes TOO high at it being real. Shouldn't have jumped the gun really. Looking at the 43 steels and this one, they look identical....under the scan, well that's a different story.
If you get the chance watch "Secrets of the United States Mint". It is a documentory that was aired on the Discovery channel and it has a segment that talks about error coins and what people have done to fake coins such as this one. The rest of the show is great education for any numismatic persons.
We use microscopes at work to identified defects in our products. The microscope has a vision camera attached to it. The camera is connected to an input card of a computer which has vision software which allows us to take still pics of any image seen through the scope. This media is quiet neat and great for cataloging your coins to a data file.
real? notice in the blown up pics. the 9 is lower than it should be. the 4 is way off and the 3 is not right either. certain its not real here. But......... its a nice conversation piece!
Yea, it probably is the '53 with the 5 replaced by a 4. Thought I struck gold....back to the drawing board, eh?
The real thing, courtesy of Heritage Auctions: http://coins.heritageauctions.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=248&Lot_No=5491&src=pr
