Please help with 1943 penny question

This is a first and desperate post. Do the 1943 steel pennies ever look exactly like other pennies of that age - dark brown? I had one and now it is missing, it looked like all my other wheat pennies. It was years back when I got it from my grandfather along with other 1940s pennies. I learned from a coin book that that year was different from the others but it did not appear different so I was unimpressed and threw it back in the drawer where it is no more. I just want to know that the pennies can look the same if well circulated and if so will assume it was steel and sleep well at night. If not, well that is bad news for my sanity and my house.

Also, do the steels sound significantly different from copper wheat pennies when dropped? I remember it sounded different but I might have been comparing it to more modern pennies, I do not recall.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

See if it sticks to a magnet. And thru might look similar due to corrosion but there should still be s difference.

 

I cannot do that because it is missing. I'm not sure how hard I should look for it but would empty my house if I thought there was a good chance it was copper. It may have gotten mixed in with change a long time ago and spent.

 

If it is Missing? Do not worry about it..the chances of getting 1943 Copper is very slim.. it is look like you gonna pass on the needle hole..You will get a lot of headache trying to see something that is not worth of million of Dollars...
Next time if you see or find something looks odd or differents hold on to it.
edwinrd117

 

Let me pique your curiosity a little. The last examples of 1943 copper cents sold for extraordinary amounts of money. We are talking in excess of 1+ millions bucks for a nice one. Will that help motivate you to look?

 

REALLY? ONE MILLION BUCKS + Plus Now a Good Example on High Grade?...OK! KLEIGH...GO FOR IT NOW and start looking everywhere!

 

I've already started looking aggressively but I'd have hire people to move things out of the house in order to cover every square inch with little hope of finding it. I can't believe I would have something that rare so I wanted to know if these pennies can look like copper and I won't be as distraught and sick over not having it. I realize there are plated fakes but don't know if the plated would look strange or different from other copper pennies. I was just a kid when I got it and had no idea other than it was a WWII penny and my parents did not help so it went in with other wheats and miscellaneous coins.

I would say I'm not lucky so it couldn't have been genuine but now that it is gone it probably was real which confirms I'm really, really unlucky.

Anyone know if there were lots of fakes made many years ago? Gramps had his wheats probably since the forties or fifties.

 

I wouldn't be able to sleep at night

 

Could be plated (Yes they do look normal), could be an altered date, or could be an outright fake. And yes they have been making fake 43 copper cents since probably the late 40's.

 

I would say that unless your grandfather worked at the mint, or knew someone who did, or was extremely weathly, the chances of him having a genuine 1943 copper wheat cent is very very low. Especially since there are only about 40 known to exist. I wouldn't lose any sleep if I were you.

 

Thank you, that makes me feel better. I wonder why all the fakes, did they think collectors could be fooled? It sounds like the magnet test and looking closely at the date can confirm a fake.

I'm going to test the sounds of my friend's steel penny, a wheat penny and a penny from the seventies. I kind of remember the type of sound my penny made when dropped on the table compared to another penny, maybe that will help.

I know this must all sound silly to you collectors but I don't have a lot of knowledge though I've now checked on all my old coins and really have nothing uncommon or of significant value. So this whole mystery of the missing brown 1943 is just odd.

 

Not only are there plated fakes, there are total counterfeits and altered date fakes. BTW, yes they do sound different. You probably have a better chance of hitting the lottery twice and then getting hit by lightning, rather than finding an authentic '43 copper. But anything is possible...

Mike

 

To answer your question about color, the steel cents of 1943 were shiny silver when minted and turned a dull, dark grey with circulation. It would be difficult to confuse a circulated steel cent with a brown copper one. Yes, there is a difference in sound between a zinc-plated steel cent and a bronze one.

Not all fakes are recolored steel cents, though that was common and a magnet test is telling. Many are altered dates and pass the magnet test. Experienced collectors can usually spot the alteration.

Don't despair if you cannot find the penny. You're more likely to win a $million at Lotto than have a copper '43.
Lance.

 

give up

 

Well even back in the 40's the real ones would still sell for about the annual wage for the average working man. If they could pass one for that great! But they didn't really expect to do that. What they hoped for was sell them for a decent price to non-collectors who had heard of the copper 43 cents and who thought they were getting "bargain" off of someone who didn't know what they had. These non-collectors could NOT easily tell the fakes and were easy victims to their own greed. The very fact that we get a LOT of people asking questions here about their copper 1943 cents and whether they are real or not shows that a lot of people DON'T know how to verify them.

 

you right about that !!!

 

This is 100% true...and do to the scarcity of the real examples...the number of fakes probably out number the authentic coins by 1000s fold.

 

I have a 1943 penny that is a reddish brown color but turns a very dull silverish red(not a word, I know)color in olive oil, but 30 minutes later it's reddish brown again

 

Why is this