Expert: PAPAJACK - 5/22/2008

Question
After going through a 5 gallon water jug of pennies that my dad saved for 40 years, I think I found an interesting penny.  It's silver in color, weighs less than a current penny, 2.7 ish. (is the current penny about 3.1?)  It's not a silver penny or like that.  It's light weight, kind of like aluminum feeling.  But it sticks to a magnet.  I've never seen anything like this before.  Any value?

Answer
Hello Ellen,                    

The 1943-S US Cent is not a rare coin at all; there were more than 900 million made at all three mints. Unless you find on in copper rather than steel. (less than 10 copper 1943 cents have been found so far)

The 1943 Lincoln Cents are 'ZINC COATED STEEL' released only in 1943. And yes there is some value on them.

Owing to a shortage of copper during the War, the Treasury Department used steel for the Cent. No bronze coins were officially made that year, although some exist, and through a similar error some steel cents from 1944 do exist.

All three Mints made the coins.
Philadelphia produced 684,628,670 of them.
Denver Mint produced 217,660,000 of them.
San Francisco produced 191,550,000 of them.
It is likely there are many rolls of them, even to collect a 50 to 100 of them would have been easy in the 1960's to 1970's. I don't see too much in circulation any more. A lot of them do rot away if exposed to the elements.
Their value ranges from .20 cents for lower grade specimens to about $3.00 in brilliant un-circulated condition to collectors.

Since you are going through a lot of them I thought I would include this advice.
Collectors have devised a numerical grading system for coins. It goes from 1 to 70. With Grade-1 being barely identifiable as a coin and 70 being absolutely perfect. Coins taken from circulation usually fall between grade 8-VG (very Good) and grade 50 (AU Almost Un-circulated).

For grading the Lincoln Cent look at Lincoln’s bow tie and ear, they wear first. Their value depends on the grade and any damage to the coins (like having been cleaned, nicked, dented scratched etc.).

Some Lincoln dates to look for:
1909-S, 1910-S, 1911-D, 1911-S, 1914-D, 1914-S, 1915-S, 1921-S and 1922-D OR 1922 no D, 1924-D, 1926-S, 1931-D, 1931-S.
THESE ARE ALL KEY OR SEMI-KEY DATES FOR Lincoln cents. There are some others as well though.  

A post 1940 issue date coin can retail to collectors from .10 to .50 cents in circulated grades. But a dealer will pay less. Virtually all circulated cents made after 1945 will sell for 3 cents each in bulk.

Do not try to clean the coins in any way. Learning to estimate the grade of the coins and noting any cleaning or mishandling is the key to finding the value of one. See if you can borrow or use at your library a copy of the book titled "A Guide Book of U. S. Coins" by R.S. Yeoman, has pictures showing the difference in grades.

Hope I answered all your questions. Feel free to ask me others about US Coins.

Thank You and Good Luck

PapaJack