i purchased a bag of steel pennies for my Son who has just started collecting coins. As always I go through the bag to make sure there aren't any hidden gems before he gets a hold of 'em. I ran across a Steel Penny 1943 that has what I would say is a pretty pronounced double stamp on the date. Enclosed is a picture. I have not sent it to get graded yet, but my investigations have not revealed anything on this variety. I know there is one for the '43 with DBL on the D of the Denver coins. Before I sent it out to ANACS, they advised I try and get an idea on the rarity and possible value. Anyway, if there are any out there that have info I would be most appreciative. I'm not a pro a grading but I would suspect it is at least an AU-50, good brightness and little wear, it might possibly be MS state although there is a pronounced finger print on Obverse.
hi Irvin and welcome to the forum!! The cents of 1943 were very often replated with the outer zinc layer to make newer looking coins. Replating usually leaves bumps on the surfaces from the coin not being perfectly clean before they were processed. The photo are rather small, but the bottom one especially seems to show such a surface. Normal coins do collect grease and dirt in areas such as the date, and also machine doubling ( not in hubbing process) ,and any reprocessing treating could emphasize these in odd appearing devices ( the raised areas ) on the coin. The date looks like a machine doubled date reprocessed. Larger more resolution photos would be needed to determine. There is no similar Doubled die in any reference books I have, so I would go by this until we can see better. Jim
thanks for update, the bag of pennies I purchased where all very shinny so you may be correct that they where replated. I have no way of really knowing but I did weight them and there was no appreciable weight difference between that and the book literature. I play with my camera a see if I can get a better image. Do you think that its worth sending off to get graded
Unfortunately once it's been replated the grading companies will not grade them. Do they all appear to have a slight blue tint to them?
They should look like this one poster here. Note no high luster. The zinc coating didn't make them shiny. Most of the circulated ones look gray in color with dark spots on them or sometimes rust. The area in question on the date is enhanced by the re processing. But because steel dies and steel planchets were used, the dies suffered by extreme wear making devices flow toward the rim. Clashes happened often. There were even a few 1944 Steel cents as well.
Thanks everyone for your help. The coins I purchased (30 in all for $15) do not have a tint to them but appear silver. Here again is hopefully a slightly larger blow up of the date.
