My daughter found a 1944 penny in her piggy bank and I wonder if this coin worth or not. The penny is not attracted by the magnet and weight 3 grams.
Its a 1944 wheat cent Philadelphia mint, quite worn. Minted in the hundreds of millions, only worth maybe a dime, but keep it, nice piece of history.
"NGC’s Coin Explorer says that “In 1943, with copper urgently needed for combat-related purposes, the Mint made Lincoln cents from zinc-coated steel. The substitute proved unsatisfactory, and from 1944 through 1946 the Mint instead used the brass alloy first tried in 1942; this lacked the small percentage of tin employed before and after the war. At least a portion of this brass was obtained from salvaged cartridge cases, which did the job nicely" I can't find the article I remember reading a long time ago, that it was mainly a symbolic gesture as the salvaging of "brass" from the large shells in a naval or artillery conflict environment was too dangerous ( some sailors were also swept overboard ) for a larger effort. I remember they eventually decided that unusable brass from small arms training was a good source and allowed the citizens having to do rationing and recycling to feel they were directly helping the war effort.
