1943 steel penny: mintages, rare copper errors and how to check yours

Nearly every 1943 cent is zinc-coated steel. The Mint struck 1,093,838,670 of them to save copper for World War II, so an ordinary one is common. The rarities are the handful of 1943 cents struck on bronze ("copper") blanks and the 1944 cents struck on leftover steel.

By the Coin Scanner team · Updated 2026-10-13

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Why the Mint made pennies out of steel

By 1942 copper was needed for the war effort, and a law passed on December 18, 1942 let the Treasury change what the cent was made of. The Mint had already tested a strange mix of substitutes, including plastics, fiberboard and even glass, before settling on low-carbon steel plated with zinc. According to NGC columnist David W. Lange, Philadelphia started striking the new cents on February 23, 1943, and Denver and San Francisco followed a month later.

The Director of the Mint's report for fiscal 1944 records that steel cent production stopped on December 31, 1943 and that the steel cent and the wartime silver nickel together freed 3,194 tons of copper for war use that fiscal year. From January 1, 1944, cents went back to a 95% copper, 5% zinc alloy, partly made from melted cartridge cases.

The public never warmed to the "steelies." New ones were shiny and easily mistaken for dimes, vending machine magnets meant to catch slugs also grabbed them, and because the zinc covered only the faces and not the edge, they rusted quickly. Lange notes the Treasury pulled steel cents out of circulation from 1949 until 1960 and sent them for melting.

1943 steel cent mintages by mint

These figures come from the Director of the Mint's table of 1943 domestic coinage, which lists the face value of cents struck at each mint (one cent per piece).

One die variety stands out among the regular steel cents: the 1943/2-S, long catalogued as a 1943-S doubled die and confirmed in 2022 as the only overdate in the Lincoln series, according to CoinWeek. Our doubled die guide explains how that kind of doubling happens.

The real rarity: 1943 bronze ("copper") cents

A few 1943 cents were struck on bronze blanks instead of steel. The usual explanation is that leftover 1942 blanks stayed in the equipment and went through the presses with the new steel ones. In 1946 the Acting Director of the Mint still told one finder that no copper cents had been struck in 1943; genuine examples were only accepted later.

Examples are known from all three mints. NGC wrote in 2019 that about 20 Philadelphia pieces were known, CoinWeek reported in 2026 that seven 1943-S coins are confirmed, and a single 1943-D is known. Some recorded auction results:

• The unique 1943-D bronze cent, graded PCGS MS-64 BN, sold for $840,000 at Heritage Auctions in January 2021 (CoinWeek).
• A 1943-S bronze cent graded PCGS AU-55 sold for $456,000 at Stack's Bowers on March 10, 2026 (CoinWeek).
• The 1947 discovery coin found by Don Lutes Jr. sold for $204,000 at auction in January 2019 (NGC).

The opposite mistake: 1944 steel cents

In 1944 the Philadelphia Mint still had zinc-coated steel planchets on hand, because it was striking 25 million steel coins for Belgium that fiscal year (Mint report). A few found their way under 1944 cent dies. A 2021 Heritage press release estimated 25 to 30 exist in all grades, noted that NGC had certified four and PCGS ten, and cited a PCGS MS64 example that brought $158,625 at Stack's Bowers in August 2013.

How to check your 1943 penny

1. Read the date and mint mark. Look under the date for a D or S; no letter means Philadelphia. If you are unsure where to look on other coins, see where to find the mint mark.
2. Try a magnet. Gray or silvery and magnetic means a normal steel cent. Copper-colored and magnetic means a steel cent that has been copper plated; CoinWeek recounts that one New York coin firm plated 5,000 of them in the early 1960s and released them into circulation.
3. Weigh it. Use a scale that reads to 0.1 g. Steel cents were made to 42.5 grains (about 2.75 g; references often round to 2.7 g). A bronze cent should be close to 3.11 g. Wear and corrosion shift the numbers slightly.
4. Study the last digit. The most common fake bronze 1943 is a 1945, 1948 or 1949 cent with the final digit reworked into a 3. The 3 on a real bronze 1943 has the same shape as the 3 on a steel cent, so compare the two and look for scraping or tool marks around it.
5. Stop and get it authenticated. A non-magnetic coin of about 3.11 g with an untouched date is worth sending to a grading service such as PCGS or NGC. Do not clean it.

Reprocessed and re-plated steel cents

Many bright 1943 cents sold to the public are not original. "Reprocessing" means stripping the corroded zinc and plating the coin again. NGC explains that this wipes out the fine die flow lines and luster of an original surface, and that the worst examples look mirror-shiny all over, even on Lincoln's portrait. NGC will not certify reprocessed steel cents, and collectors avoid them. Original coins tend to have satiny, even surfaces with visible flow lines.

What decides the value of a normal 1943 cent

For the regular steel cents, value comes down to condition and originality: how much wear the coin has, whether the zinc is still bright and free of rust spots, and whether it has been cleaned or re-plated. Mint mark matters less than grade because all three mints made hundreds of millions. Truly superb examples, especially certified ones, sell for far more than worn pieces. For more on the wider series, see our Lincoln wheat penny value guide; the same wartime metal shortage also produced the silver war nickels.

To get a quick idea of where your coin stands, photograph both sides with Coin Scanner. The app reads the date and mint mark and gives an estimated value range. Treat that as a starting point only: any coin that might be a bronze 1943 or a steel 1944 needs professional authentication before you rely on a value.

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