1943 Steel Cents

[jim tn]

My wife asked me the other day if I had ever found a Steel Cent? She said something to the effect if I did I should check them closely because one just sold for a million plus. In reading the article she was referring to it was one of the bronze steel cents that was made by mistake. Anyway, that got me to thinking about never finding "Steelies," particularly in light of one of the sites I hunt was very active in the 40's and 50's and 3/4 of the wheat cents I find are from those two decades. Although I was pretty sure they would read pretty low on my F 75 LTD, my curiosity got aroused and I dug through some of my curio coins and found one and ran the LTD's coil over it. Anyone ever found one? I haven't, and probably never will. The best I could get was a weak grunt and a vdi of 8-12. Hummmm? HH jim tn

 

[Elton]

I sure would like to find one like your wife was talking about.... I have no idea how many were made of the copper type variety.. Do you ???

 

[mudpuppy]

Thought about this subject myself a time or two I did...figured it would have to be a "dig it all" iron signals dude to even have a chance at a steely, but then a fellow would be complaining about all the old electrical box knock out plugs instead of pulltabs he'd be a'diggin...it would be a real trophy for sure if a fellow set his mind to it...but thats about it, a rusty old steely not worth a tinkers cuss. Why dont you give it a go and let the silver you usually find take the rest of the year off?
Mud

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[jim tn]

I ask a scientific question, have a teaching moment going here on a subject maybe a few of us could learn something from and I get mud slung in my face. Elton, I can't find the article right now, but sounded like 2 1943 bronze cents are known and in collections. One sold for $1.7 mil in 2010. Sounded like a batch were made of bronze by mistake rather then steel that year, but was caught before putting them into circulation. Don't know how the 1 or 2 got into collections. And no, mud, I am not going to dig all for steelies in lieu of silver. Especially since they sound and read like a rust spot. HH jim tn

 

[REVIER]

Co-owner of the Texas Rangers bought it.
This completes his collection and now he owns a whole set from all three mints.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/26/1943-bronze-penny-bill-simpson_n_1916043.html?1348680992

 

[REVIER]

I did find 3 steel pennies on one hunt in a park that used to be an old neighborhood built in the teens or 1920's, knocked down in the 60's.
Between that site and a school tot lot next to it that didn't seemed to have ever been hunted before I dug close to $10 in clad that day, no silver but 4 wheaties and 3 of them were 1943 plain steel cents.
Real lucky, I know, but it did happen.
I dug so many coins that day and remembered that when I dug each of these I was confused because they came in at a weird signal on my F2.
Generally, a dime on my F2 is a 71-73...a copper penny usually 70-71.
These three came in at a 76.
All three were really crusty discs and no amount of rubbing in the field would clean any of it off or reveal any details.
I suspected they were pennies because of the size, but I figured they were just older wheaties that were in the ground so long they were coated with that concrete like combination of dirt and clay that some of my coins were coated with when dug out of that Alabama devil soil.
I just threw them in my treasure pocket and moved on, but when I got back home I was curious about these discs I couldn't get clean so I threw them into my tumbler with all the other pennies I found that day.
When I pulled them out after about 45 minutes of tumbling I got 3 big surprises.
No wonder I could not rub off the dirt in the field...it wasn't dirt, it was really rust.

I was lucky that day, I don't expect this to ever happen again.

 

[jim tn]

My brief test was just with the cent laying on top of the ground. I now can't help but wonder about the badly corroded disc's I've found and just threw them away as they were so badly corroded. Nice recovery on the 3. Very seldom see one posted. Thanks! HH jim tn

 

[REVIER]

My brief test was just with the cent laying on top of the ground. I now can't help but wonder about the badly corroded disc's I've found and just threw them away as they were so badly corroded. Nice recovery on the 3. Very seldom see one posted. Thanks! HH jim tn

I have read of others that have found these and most of them mention because these were steel and found after sitting in the moist ground usually for 50 years plus, rusty, crusty discs were what they looked like most of the time.

 

[Coilfisher]

Because they are steel, they usually turn out to be rusted discs.
So, no...many do not find them as they are disc'd out.

~CF

 

[miserman]

I have only found three in thirty years and each one of them were in the same holes with other coins. None had readable dates,only faint details. When cleaned and "derusted" they become very porus. After digging a coin with the F75 ,rechecking the hole with the pinpoint switch should let you know something else is in the hole. If rechecking the hole with Disc. it would probably be missed.

 

[John LA]

It was in fair shape' no rust.

 

[bugg]

Using an AH mini pro, one of the first discriminating detectors on the market. It only disc'ed out tiny iron, and foil. The penny was so rusted and corroded, you could hardly tell what it was.

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

And they are still rusted together with a regular bronze cent. No chance of separating them.

Chris

 

[MarkCZ]

My wife asked me the other day if I had ever found a Steel Cent? She said something to the effect if I did I should check them closely because one just sold for a million plus. In reading the article she was referring to it was one of the bronze steel cents that was made by mistake. Anyway, that got me to thinking about never finding "Steelies," particularly in light of one of the sites I hunt was very active in the 40's and 50's and 3/4 of the wheat cents I find are from those two decades. Although I was pretty sure they would read pretty low on my F 75 LTD, my curiosity got aroused and I dug through some of my curio coins and found one and ran the LTD's coil over it. Anyone ever found one? I haven't, and probably never will. The best I could get was a weak grunt and a vdi of 8-12. Hummmm? HH jim tn

Well, In post like this some people like to have a little fun, like "give the silver a rest" was just humor!

In most all cases finding a REAL War penny (steel penny) would mean maybe a pocket spill that included one, or.
Running very low discrimination and digging iron.
Next is the condition of them (steel ones) when you fine them, not much!
Plus, the darn steel cents just isn't worth much anyway! (now a copper one should fall in with a regular Wheat cent)

And its not impossible to find a war time copper cent sense its unknown to just how many got out of the mint, but I would think one that lucky (or blessed) would have a much better chance of winning the Power Ball lottery! or maybe getting struck by lighting on your birthday two years in a row!

But, its the thoughts of finding something like that that intrigues people to this hobby. Also, keep in mind that they're is other juicy finds like the 43 copper that may not be worth as much but would still bring in a good bank roll, like, (just pennies)

A 1909-S V.D.B (this in just good condition is worth $850.00)
A 1922 -no D ($750.00 in good condition)
A 1955 Double Die (in fair condition is worth $1,500.00)
A 1914-D (in good condition is worth $215.00 and at over one million minted puts this one on a likely to find list)

About a 1916-D Mercury Dime, in just good condition is worth $1,000.00

Or a 1916-D three legged nickle, in just good condition is worth $550.00

Mark

 

[jacco]

Same thing with the new euro 1, 2 and 5 cents. Steel with a thin copper layer. They usually start rusting in a few days when left outside.

Can't find these cents with the F75, only if you dig all in all metal. Also have got a Tesoro Lobo ST. I do find these cents with the Lobo, with DISC setting at 2.5

 

[deliveryboy]

This topic just reminded me of a penny collection my mom had made for me as a kid, I had ot go dig them out to see what I had, since I remembered I had the collection of 3 steels in it. Anyhow here are my collections, I'll have to try to fill out the rest myself. Cool to think her hobby would someday would turn into mine as well. Oldest penny is 1910 no mint mark, can't see any with huge value per list of valuable coins.

I never thought about finding these steel ones before while detecting nor did I take into consideration the oxidization and how easily they might be descriminted out. I may test them for setting on my compadre and lobo in the morning and give you my results. Nice find BTW

 

[AustinEd]

I have found a couple of recognizable steelies, but they rust so bad over the years it is very hard to tell. The best one was sandwiched with two copper cents.