Pennies
1943 steel penny: what is it worth and is mine copper?
Answer two questions about your coin: whether a magnet picks it up and, if you have a scale, what it weighs. The tool tells you which kind you hold.
Is my 1943 penny steel or copper?
Your 1943 cent is
zinc-coated steel, the normal 1943 cent
| Steel cent weight | 2.70 g |
| Bronze cent weight | 3.11 g |
| 1943 cents struck, all mints | 1,093,838,670 |
The Mint says a few 1943 cents were struck in copper by accident and are highly valuable; copper-plated steel fakes exist, and a magnet catches them.
The 1943 cent is the only Lincoln cent struck in zinc-coated steel instead of copper alloy: it weighs 2.70 grams against 3.11 for a bronze cent, looks gray rather than brown and sticks to a magnet. The Bureau of the Mint tables count 684,628,670 struck at Philadelphia, 217,660,000 at Denver and 191,550,000 at San Francisco in 1943, about 1.09 billion in all, so an ordinary steel cent is common and its steel is not priced by this site. The famous exception is the copper 1943 cent: the Mint’s anatomy of a coin page says a few were struck in copper by accident and are highly valuable. Because steel cents are often plated with copper to imitate one, a magnet and a scale come before any hope, and a coin that passes both still needs authentication by an expert.
Wheat penny: mintage and metal by year
Metal value of one 1931 coin
4.4¢
| Struck at this mint | 866,000 |
| Mintage band | Very low mintage (under 1 million) |
| Metal | Bronze cent (95% copper) |
| Mint mark on the coin | S |
Pieces made in the calendar year; for most years this is also the date on the coin. At copper $6.61 per lb (last price read).
Mintages, metals and prices read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
One year in steel
For one year the cent changed metal completely. The Bureau of the Mint’s 1981 tables list the 1943 cent as zinc-coated steel of 2.70 grams, between bronze cents of 3.11 grams dated 1942 and 1944. The three mints all took part, and the letter under the date tells you which one made yours.
| Mint | Mark under the date | Steel cents struck in 1943 |
|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia | none | 684,628,670 |
| Denver | D | 217,660,000 |
| San Francisco | S | 191,550,000 |
| All three | 1,093,838,670 |
None of these runs is small. The lowest of the three, at San Francisco, still passes 191 million. An ordinary steel cent is a fine piece of history to keep, and the tool at the top of this page confirms that you hold one in two clicks.
The copper 1943 cent
What makes people search for this coin is a mistake. The Mint’s anatomy of a coin page says that a few 1943 cents were struck in copper by accident and are highly valuable today. The Mint does not publish how many exist, and neither does this site: there is no official count, only the statement that they are few.
Imitations of this coin come in two kinds. The first is a steel cent plated with copper: it looks right, but a magnet still picks it up. The second is a bronze cent of another year with the last digit filed or reshaped to read 1943: it fails no magnet test, so compare the shape of the 3 with an ordinary steel cent of the same year under a magnifier, and look for tool marks around the date. A scale reading to a hundredth of a gram adds a check, because steel and bronze differ by about 0.41 grams.
A coin that is not magnetic, weighs about 3.11 grams and shows a clean, unaltered date is worth showing to an authentication service. This site does not grade or authenticate coins and gives no price for one.
Steel cents and the wheat series
Apart from the metal, the 1943 cent is an ordinary wheat cent: same portrait, same two ears of wheat on the back, same three mints. The tool below reads the number struck for any wheat cent from 1909 to 1958, so you can compare 1943 with the years around it. In the tables, 1943 sits between 950,116,600 cents struck in 1942 and 2,148,738,000 in 1944, all mints together.
The reverse case also exists. The variety tool on the error coins page describes a 1944 cent struck in steel, which a magnet picks up while a normal 1944 cent is bronze and is not attracted. The same two tests, magnet and scale, apply.
Caring for a steel cent
Keep it dry and away from fingers, which leave moisture and salts on the surface. Do not try to remove rust or dark spots with chemicals or abrasives: you would strip the zinc coating and make it worse. A small paper or inert plastic holder is enough. Like every cent, a steel cent cannot legally be melted or treated for its metal under 31 CFR Part 82, which in any case would yield nothing but a little steel and zinc. The rare pennies page lists the cents that are scarce by number struck.