Wheat penny questions/finds

colomap

Full disclosure - I am not a collector but wanted to post some finds.

I recently read an article that said the rarest wheat penny was a 1943-D. Well...I happen to live in Denver and my house was built in '43. I've been doing a reno on this house for about 5 years and I've seen pennies all over the place, especially while redoing the floors. There were pennies in and along a bunch of the floorboards. I've also found some in the crawl space. I'd like to post some photos to see what you all think of these. Thx in advance.

So far:
1941
1942-D
1944-S
1945
1954-D
1954-S

EDIT: Cant find where to attach photos in a post

david3142

The penny in question would be a 43-D in copper as pretty much all cents were made from zinc-coated steel that year. At least one from each mint (about 40 total coins) is known to exist in the metal used to strike coins in 1942 and earlier years. There is only one known 1943-D in copper so it is currently unique and extremely valuable (about $1.5M). A steel 1943-D is a cool find but would most likely be worth only a few cents. There were 218 million of them made so they aren’t rare, but still cool. You are extremely unlikely to find a genuine copper 1943 from any mint.

jesbroken

Welcome to the forum and as david said the 43D in question is very special. Cool all the cent finds. Start an album with all the coins you found. BTW its easy to post a photo, just copy and paste into your post.
Jim

BuffaloIronTail

Here it is.

Pete

And no, it's not mine.

JBK

I am glad you came here to ask but pls be aware that those clickbait ads or stories you see online are inaccurate or misleading at best.

Your takeaway from the story you read is probably normal. The authors/sponsors probably did not mention or explain the key factor in that coin's value.

If you are poking around in an old house the most likely find of value will be old silver coins.

The other possibility - and I am not sure if this is likely in Denver or Philadelphia - is that you might find steel webbing left over from the process where they punched out the blanks to make the cents. In the proximity of one of the mints they used the webbing in the walls of houses being constructed.

So, if you find metal sheets with lots and lots of cent-sized holes, that might be a little interesting.

colomap

Only a URL link works with adding a photo - and copy and paste doesn't seem to work - I'll work it out

Che_Grapes

@BuffaloIronTail said:

Here it is.

Pete

THIS is the cent you found???
Don’t spend it - don’t clean it - don’t even move!! Tell me where you are I’ll come get you —

colomap

None of the 6 I've found so far respond to a magnet so that means they are copper correct?

colomap

testing pics

JBK

1943 steel cents (zinc plated) will be a shade of silver or gray. A few 1944 cents were accidentally struck in steel, but aside from those, wheat cents are all struck from a copper alloy and will not stick to a magnet.

Oldhoopster

@colomap said:
None of the 6 I've found so far respond to a magnet so that means they are copper correct?

An authentic 1943 copper cent will not stick to a magnet. However, there are MANY fakes, predominantly from China that are struck on copper planchets that won't stick to a magnet either. All of the standard 1943 cents were struck on zinc coated steel, so they will stick.

The magnet test can tell you if you have a plated fake, but it can't be used to guarantee authenticity

Edit to add: the cents you listed in the OP are all very common and are only worth 2-3 cents each

colomap

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lso4eqxxuiyjx9m/1941_1.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2t7e1bukwvy8xx4/1942_D.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/c51xscbm25vn3ap/1944_S.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tu5x627zqs3az4n/1945_1.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2alcq0y2zjycx0l/1954_D.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9g982yb94yif3tr/1954_S.jpg?dl=0

ricko

@colomap.... Welcome aboard. None of those carry numismatic premiums.... Keep looking, there could be treasure there. Cheers, RickO

Steven59

Always fun to find wheat cents in the "wild".

moursund

@Steven59 said:
Always fun to find wheat cents in the "wild".

And if they are not valuable, and you don't know what to do with them, drop them in a tip jar or something... 🙂

MsMorrisine

I see our modulators are still on vacation.

You are not a full member yet and can’t upload pics yet.

If you have a url to a website, you can link them.

Once you can upload photos it’s as easy as drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste.

Circulated cents from the 1940s are extremely common. About 3 cents each.

In 1943, cents were made of zinc plated steel. Should you find a 1943 cent it will either be magnetic or it could even be a copper-bronze counterfeit before you’d find a true 1943 cent struck on copper-bronze. There’s a flood of counterfeit 1943-D in copper-bronze so don’t buy that boat if you find one.

jesbroken

Some nice cents to be found in floor, although with some damage to be expected. These were all copied and pasted. Perhaps your membership is so new it doesn't yet allow you to copy or paste. I understand that takes a couple of days or so.
Jim

colomap

Thanks for all the replies - this is pretty fun stuff.