Hello 1943 1944 Wheat Penny Steel Not Steel Copper Not Copper?

Some of the close AM's are valuable some of the wide AM's are valuable.
It depends on the year. There is a good list from the Lincoln Cent Collection.

To summarize the following is normal:
1959-1992 all business strikes and proofs are supposed to have a Wide AM
1993 all business strikes and proofs have a Close AM
1994-2008 all business strikes have a Close AM
1994-2008 all proofs have a Wide AM

What this means is that the following list of confirmed variations from these rules are valuable in order from most to least rare:
1992-P Business Strike Close AM
1992-D Business Strike Close AM
1998-S Proof Close AM
1999-S Proof Close AM
1999-P Business Strike Wide AM
1998-P Business Strike Wide AM
2000-P Business Strike Wide AM

I don't see the 1995-D on this list.

 

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Ironic isn't it.

 

Well, the problem is 100 people a week come in here with photos of worthless coins asking: Am I rich? Am I rich Am I rich? The You Tube videos, said I am rich.
So if you think someone is being snarky, they probably are. If you were to ask a polite question, you would get a quick and polite and correct response.
When you see a coin video on You Tube you should leave a comment that they are not educating people, or helping the hobby. At least 90% of them are full of misinformation, half truths, and down right lies.

 

I did not think i was being rude initially and I am sure that hundreds do come here asking. I am not asking if I am rich I am not even really trying to collect coins. Although I have saved coins for 20 or 30 years and mostly I have not even looked through them. I have purchased Morgans and Silver rounds and some sets and I would sell them all if I knew that I could make some money because my business is slow right now and I am grasping a little .

 

Thank you for providing this very useful information.

 

What is?

 

Now as to the 1943 steel and 1944 copper, these are both very common.
In 1944-1946 they say that the cents were "shell case cents". At first I thought that meant these were from spent bullets from WW2, but that war was not fought in the US, so we were not scrounging around battlefields picking up used bullets. Then I read that it was from spent shell casings from domestic gun ranges.
Some people say the coins were not made from this, and others say they were.
I have no doubts that these were collected, as they were recycling everything during WW2, rubber, paper, metal etc. Were there enough shell casings to mint 5 billion cents in 1944-1946? I doubt it. It would take 42 million troy pounds (after refining) to make 5 billion cents.
Although my experience with the 1945's are that they tone differently from other cents, so perhaps their composition/alloy IS different.
Red Book says:
1909-1942 - 0.950 copper, 0.050 tin and zinc
1944-1946 - 0.950 copper, 0.050 zinc
1947-1958 - 0.950 copper, 0.050 tin and zinc

I thought there was manganese or something else in there.

 

The web site is correct, the chances of finding valuable errors are extremely low. The reason for that is that valuable errors are valuable because very few were made. Take the 1943 cents struck on a copper planchet. Approx 20-30 are known from all 3 mints. Sounds like a lot, but approx. 1.1 BILLION 1943 cents were minted at the 3 mints.
Now there are many “not so valuable” errors out there. Most are worth less than a buck, some are only worth face value, and occasionally some are worth a couple bucks. In 45+ years of collecting, which includes 45+ years of looking at nearly every coin that crosses my hand, I’ve never found and an off center coin and only 1 blank planchet. Yet, go on ebay and you can buy them by the dozen for a few bucks each

 

@paddyman98 looks like you need a new avatar
Apologies to the OP. Sure it was just autocorrect but can't resist having fun with paddyman

 

Yes it is a Close AM, and that is the normal reverse type for that year.

You might have on average a certain PERCENTAGE of coins issued that are errors, absolute numbers are NOT known but say you have a cent die that was flawed and made into a doubled die. If it were to last its entire normal production life it would make about a million coins. Now that mint made about 4 billion cents in a given year. If you could bring ALL of that years production into one pile and you pulled a cent out you would have a 1 in 4,000 chance of pulling out one of those doubled dies. Not good odds, but it gets worse.

They don't just turn the press on and forget about it, the pressman takes a sample of the coins from the press on a regular basis and examines them for errors. So he looks and spots that doubled die. He shuts down the press and has the die changed Now suppose maybe only 25,000 coins were struck before it was discovered and all of them got released. Now in that pile we spoke of earlier you reach in, and now your chance of getting one of those doubled dies is 1 in 160,000. And that is in a pile where every coin is the correct date and mint.

In the real world you are trying to find that doubled die cent out of all the cents that have been released in say the past ten years. Your chance of having one in your pocket change is now 1 in 3.2 million. You start to see why they say your chance of finding an error of any significant value in your pocket change is very slight. All the errors aren't accounted for, there is just a very small chance you will find one.

But keep looking, allthe errors they make that get released are out there somewhere, until they are found and pulled by a collector, so the more coins you look at the better your chance of finding one.

 

Excuse me, but nobody said you asked a stupid question, but you, once you realized how stupid it was.

 

I think you are asking if it is known if all the 1943 copper and 1944 steel errors are accounted for...is that what you are asking?

There is no way to know for sure. These coins weren't made intentionally...they were produced by mistake and got out of the mint. Had they been found before leaving the mint they should have been destroyed. Because they are errors that "fell through the cracks" there is no way to know how many were actually made. So, there are no way to know how many still exist today.

There are only a few of each type know to exist. I know a few years ago another 1943 copper cent was discovered. Are there still some out there waiting to be found...maybe. But then again, maybe not. There is just no way to know.

I can tell you this though. Trillions of cents have been minted. Only a few of these coins were. You have a better chance of winning the powerball and buying one of these coins at auction than finding one. That said, if you enjoy searching through coins...then enjoy the hunt. But make the hunt the fun part, not the goal.

 

I have a 1943 D penny that looks like a cross between Steele and bronze or copper. Here is the crazy thing. A stele penny is supposed to weight around 2.7 or 2.75 grams and the rare copper is 3.1. my penny does stick to a magnet but it weighs just over 3 grams. What the heck. Could this be an experimental planchette?
Can anyone help me with this?

 

I have a 1943 D penny that looks like a cross between Steele and bronze or copper. Here is the crazy thing. A stele penny is supposed to weight around 2.7 or 2.75 grams and the rare copper is 3.1. my penny does stick to a magnet but it weighs just over 3 grams. What the heck. Could this be an experimental planchette?
Can anyone help me with this?

 

I have a 1943 D penny that looks like a cross between Steele and bronze or copper. Here is the crazy thing. A stele penny is supposed to weight around 2.7 or 2.75 grams and the rare copper is 3.1. my penny does stick to a magnet but it weighs just over 3 grams. What the heck. Could this be an experimental planchette?
Can anyone help me with this?

 

Start a separate thread on the Error Coins forum.. Pictures are needed!
No pictures then it never happened. Clear pictures of both sides. Also a full picture on your gram scale.

That's the way it works here on CoinTalk!

 

Also don't leave out the part where when you point out the fact that they don't have a get rich quick coin, contrary to what they may have seen on a youtube video, they get upset and relentlessly argue about it, and often more times then not, attaching even more pix while disputing it.

 

I did recently see a number that claims the 1944 steelies were around 75 in existence. Although I only see 39 listed in USA Coin Book.
If anyone has information on these extra undocumented 1944 steelies, etc.