How many 1943 cents were processed ?
OldEastside
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I see them all the time, its like they made over a billion of them from all three mints........just wondering
Steve
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Do you mean produced/minted or processed after the fact, and where do you see them all of the time....
Just asking
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After they were released and circulated...most of them it seems. LOL
The mintage from the three mints was almost 1.1 billion (1.094 million). As for the number processed, to make them bright and shiny, that would be many, just as many as the novice collectors wanted. Some collectors like bright and shiny, and it's easy to do with those coins. The real thing has a more subdued luster.
It is claims that the process cents have been replated, but if you only scrap off the zinc, you will find shiny steel under it.
As for the number left, a substantial number have been destroyed, but not enough to make them have any sort of rarity. Back in the '50s I remember seeing newsreels where truckloads of them were dumped into the ocean, San Francisco Bay I think, to get rid of them. The government didn’t have do environmental impact studies back then before they dumped a lot of steel and zinc into the ocean.
Thanks again @BillJones for your clarifying input on this subject
I appreciate it
I love learning.
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I did not know about the dumping of the '43 cents... what was the reason behind that? Cheers, RickO
The SF Mint dumped their
punched planchet strips
after the War, into SF Bay.
Except for some that were
put to use in a Mint employee's
garden (In Oakland, as per the story)
to prevent gophers from ruining
his wife flower/vegetable garden.
I have heard the San Francisco Bay dump story, I was just wondering about the bright n shiny processed ones, I have a small jar of 43's and about 10% are processed, I was wondering who did this and why and maybe how many cents they did it to.............any rate I like the gopher story
Steve
I also heard they used the steel blank strips as building materials like joists hangers or the like after the war
Steve
The era when the "processed" steel cents" were popular was the 1960's. They were very commonly seen then. Just how many were "processed" we will never know since the US Mint wasn't involved.
Lots of people hoarded those things. I'm betting millions of them survive.
Here's a warning parable for coin collectors...
The coin was unpopular, which was supported by the fact that it was a one year type. I've read that people confused them with dimes although that did not seem to happen when I was kid in the 1960s. The steel cents were frequently seen in circulation then. I hoarded a roll and a half of them.
It was alos said that people didn't like the fact that they didn't ring when they are dropped on a hard surface.
Couple Thoughts:
In the 1960's, while roll searching, got 6 = 7 full rolls of just steel that someone had turned into the bank.
About 5 years ago, while helping the Boy Scouts with Coin Collecting Merit Badge, a person donated a quart milk bottle of them.
I operate a business involving classic Mustang parts. I send out several hundred pounds of parts, mostly steel and iron, to be chemically stripped and zinc plated. One of the options is "Clear" zinc, which is the color of the 1943 steels. Since most of the 1943's were rusted, when I get them, I toss them in the barrels to have done. Also regular copper cents and some foreign go in, just for fun. They come back looking "new" albeit still worn from circulation.
For the novice who is just looking to fill holes in the cheap blue Whitman folder, they look really nice.
Well, at least we've figured out who's processing them...
This link discusses the recovery of the steel cents starting in 1944. It indicates that the dumping story is likely apocryphal but that at the behest of the government, banks were told to pull steel cents from circulation an return them to Treasury resulting in "68 million" being recovered and melted down at the Mint.
https://www.thespruce.com/history-of-the-lincoln-cent-768785
This source indicates recovery of 163 million steel cents and also indicates smelting not dumping.
http://www.numismaticnews.net/article/majority_of_1943_steel_cents_escaped_melt
Just enough to pay off the national debt, that year.