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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;iPen, post: 2439020, member: 69760&quot;]This is an old thread... but I was browsing this thread while trying to figure this out, too. The exact steel composition was never mentioned, as far as I can tell. The only measurements that are given is the weight of the penny, that it&#039;s zinc-coated steel, and that the zinc coating is 0.0005&quot; thick (from 1944&#039;s &quot;Annual Report of the Director of the Mint&quot;).</p><p><br /></p><p>However, I was able to find the composition of the 1943 steel cent (in bold below) indirectly. As you may already know, the US Mint also produced coins for other countries during WWII. One such country is Belgium, which the US Mint produced zinc-plated steel 2 Franc coins for.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]507916[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>According to Colnect.com, that particular Belgium 2 Franc coin has an exact composition of <b>93.8% iron, 1.2% carbon, and a 5.0% zinc</b> layer. It also has the exact same composition as the 1943 US steel penny, according to Wikipedia:</p><p><br /></p><blockquote><p>&quot;...the production of 25 million Belgian two franc pieces by the Philadelphia mint after that country&#039;s liberation from the Nazis. These coins were of the same composition and the same planchets as the 1943 cents, but they differed slightly in weight.&quot;</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1943_steel_cent" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1943_steel_cent" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1943_steel_cent</a></p><p><br /></p><p>1.2% carbon makes a very high carbon steel... and there are many online references stating that the 1943 steel cent is composed of a low carbon steel (Would a low carbon steel coin be sufficiently hard for circulating coin purposes? If no, then higher carbon content would make more sense. I&#039;m not sure about either yes or no answers on this). However, adding more carbon creates a harder coin (to an extent this is practical until it becomes too brittle), which makes sense for circulating coins, otherwise they may be too soft. And, the zinc coating&#039;s purpose was to help prevent rusting, so the steel core would likely have been optimized for its hardness-toughness, and not for its innate rust resistance property, which was inevitable for an un-coated steel coin with any amount of carbon balance. Unless Colnect.com&#039;s composition is incorrect, the exact composition seems to be consistent with the 1943 steel penny&#039;s function - high enough hardness and toughness to survive circulation, while having a thick enough zinc layer to prevent the steel core from rusting.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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