1943 Steel Cent is it worth cleaning or just toss in melting pot.

Again in with a bunch of wheat cents from Relatives found a couple of 1943 steel cents, was wandering are they worth certifying or anything ,should i wire brush them up real good for a thorough cleaning or just discard them to the mint for melting.
Regards
CoinOp2 View attachment 448 673[/ATTACH]

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Wow that's a really sad Steel Cent.. Environmental Damage for sure. They are common. Unless it's a variety or error steely then it's a keeper.

 

I spend those. They make the counter pukes at mickey d's crazy. Great fun.

 

That coin would be too dificult to fix up nicely. I give coins like that away.

 

The important point is, these are pretty common even into very high grade, so it's not really worth the investment to try to save bad ones.

 

seriously>?


"they worth certifying or anything"

 

It's just a cent, it doesn't hurt to keep it. That's what I would do.

Cleaning wouldn't do anything to hurt it.

 

It's not but I'd say it's beyond repair.

 

yea, take the wire brush to it, that'll work....

 

It's not terribly worn, first try some WD-40 or even oil. After a few days you can brush it lightly with a copper or brass brush. Still won't be worth anything much, but it will look better, and non-collectors think they are cool.

 

@CoinOp2

You're wasting your time on this one. Throw it in a wishing well where it belongs.

Chris

 

Ewww...no don't do that...pollution!

 

You can't make rust look better. It has no melt value. You can't pollute a wishing well because they're cleaned regularly.

Chris

 

Ha, ha, funny!

 

Being that it is a steel cent with most of the zinc coating missing with rust started on the surface, you could get some of the jelly rust remover from the auto parts store and put that on the coin for a little bit. It will clean up the coin, remove the remaining zinc and restore some of the devices slightly. This also works on dateless Buffalo nickels instead of nic-a-date. As to your question mark it is a 43 Lincoln cent not a 44 and as such is only worth face value.
I hope this helps, John.

 

A really good idea with the jelly John, I will give it a try .
Thanks
CoinOp2

 

I use this for dateless nickels as you can put it right where you want it. I would suggest a small Rubbermaid container so you can put a lid on it to keep it from drying out. You have much better control over the results. (Cited from: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/19...-cleaning-or-just-toss-in-melting-pot.269980/)

 

There are some other things you can do after getting the rust off the coin. If you have some jewel luster take some tarnished silver jewelry or silverware and clean it repeatedly and never change out your cleaning fluid. After a while the fluid will actually become laden with very small particles of silver that are lifted from the surfaces along with the tarnish. You can then stick your steel cent in there and it will attract the silver to the surface. You can also turn copper cents silver this way. It is almost like electroplating.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, John.

 

The zinc plated Lincolns are very interesting even for people who don't collect, however zinc is almost impossible to clean and/or improve the appearance of. Many of these cents are re-plated and look kind of good, but they lose a lot of detail. I saw one at a dealers in the near past that was a good XF that had toning to die for, except someone else was buying it and I couldn't.

 

I keep em. I probably have a dozen or so by now. Costs me nothing to save them and if everyone else throws me out, who knows maybe they will actually have some value one day! [emoji2]