Open question to the entire forum: Are there any redeeming qualities to these coins? Just looking for a wide spectrum of responses, not trying to bait anyone. For the life of me I can not find a single reason not to destroy these things. I don’t want to release them back to the wild because they would turn back up here by newbies thinking they had value, which they don’t, imo, not even as a novelty. I suppose the humane thing to do is give them a proper burial or throw them into a river or lake. But then you have environmental toxic waste issues. What would you do? Are we destined to be custodians of them until the end of time? …Spark
Give some to a Metal Detecting club for their "Club planted hunts"! That would be different and exciting for them.
Roll them with the other rusty steel cents and sell them by the circulated roll. Or hang on to them. It doesn't matter if they end up in the wild because it's easy to tell if they're plated vs. original. Similar to the colorized ASEs or state quarters. It's not like they're counterfeit.
Well @Spark1951 I gotta say.... Some years back my dealer ended up with a stack of these things in a little flip open display pack. All three P, D, & S in the little pack. I think maybe he had 10-12 of them. I bought them all at a buck or so each (can't really remember) and handed them out at car shows to kids. There were some that seemed genuinely intrigued by them. I don't know... I always think old coins that we see as garbage may open a young mind to the world of coins. I still to this day sometimes deposit no date buffaloes at elementary school entryways some weekends. My very first introduction to coins was the lucky penny my granddad kept on his dresser. The date on that old cent just intrigued the heck out of me. Find some kids to give them to. You just never know.
The problem is, many of these were reprocessed with Mercury. Definitely not something you want in the lake, or in the hands of children. A few years ago, I bought the estate of an elderly gentleman and it came with a big satchel of these... clearly reprocessed, clearly mercury, and clearly worthless. I found out that my county actually has a hazardous waste disposal site where you can take things like mercury and lead, and they will deal with it appropriately. This is the absolute best option.
My LCS sells these 6 for $1.00. It’s the same price as rusted ones. He buys them from people at three cents each. You could sell them to your LCS or donate to your coin club, if you have one in your area.
On a related note, my granddaughter started taking a French class this year. So, I recently gave her a 1792 2Sol (about the size of a U.S. half) which I picked up years ago for some reason (maybe anticipating this exact scenario?). I explained to her that it circulated about the same time Ben was ambassador to France, and he most likely handled this coin at some time (that's my story & I'm sticking to it!). I think I may have lit a fire. (Unfortunately, my American coins didn't do it.) (Spark, sorry to hi-jack your thread for this story!)
OK... I am guilty as charged. They been around longer than I been on the planet and had no clue. How would one determine if a reprocessed cent is covered in mercury?
Folks have reprocessed these in several ways over the years. I know of mercury, zinc, nickel and copper being used.
Welp,…A big thanks to all who responded. However, I must relate 2 more stories to you all regarding these maligned metal disks. 2 weeks ago I took 1 coin out of its’ flip and gave it to a young female clerk checking me out of Cracker Barrel. I asked her if she had ever seen a WW2 steel wheat ear penny, she said no, she had not. I produced the penny from my pocket and showed it to her and was gratified by the widening of her eyes with genuine interest. I explained that it had been re-plated so it was not a valuable coin but she could keep it if she liked with that understanding. Maybe this one will trigger the creation of a brand new Young Numismatist. Secondly,…I went to the extent of removing the plating from another one last week. My intent was to see the condition of the surface of the coin minus the layer of reprocessed zinc. I used 75% vinegar and it took 3 soaks of 1 hour each to completely remove all vestiges of zinc and the result was a very ugly coin. If you have ever used white vinegar on rusty tools you know what I mean. Ugly enough and disappointing enough to not post pictures no matter how badly you all want me to. Just not worth the trouble. The upshot is: I still have 24, they are in flips and confirmed not the mercury coated kind. I am going to take the advice to donate them to my local coin club. They are labelled so they will be a good teaching tool, perhaps. Thanks again to everyone. My sincerest best regards to all of my FFFs… (Fine Forum Friends)…imo…Spark
Way back there was talk about one of the processes. The coin was micro plated twice using different metals. It was said that created a better bond. The 1943 Cents have to be the most messed with coins in history.
Well, mine toned some pretty awesome colors over the many years in the binder, so that's a little bit of a bright side. I paid 75 cents for the set of three as a kid in the early 70s.
