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Your Opinion on this 1943 Copper Cent.

joefrojoefro Posts: 1,872 ✭✭
in U.S. Coin Forum
What are your opinions about this 1943 Copper Cent. Obviously it isn't going to be real, but in what manner was this fake made? Is this a retooled date or something? The 4 looks a little strange to me. Thanks for your opinions.

Editted to add: I have no connection or affiliation with this auction at all.
Lincoln Cent & Libertad Collector

Comments

  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,865 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Most are copper plated 1943 steel cents. A magnet will pick them up. Some are real 1948 cents with the left side of the 8 tooled to make a 3.















    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • nwcsnwcs Posts: 13,386 ✭✭✭
    Altered from a real date.
    Blog and Pics
  • MikeInFLMikeInFL Posts: 10,188 ✭✭✭✭
    The 4 in the date looks altered....Mike

    edited to add: The seller agrees "I've studied it under the 16X magnifier and believe that if it is a forgery, which it probably is, its pretty good."
    Collector of Large Cents, US Type, and modern pocket change.
  • joefrojoefro Posts: 1,872 ✭✭
    PerryHall: Yes I agree, in the description the seller states that this coin is NOT attracted to magnets.

    Therefore, this leads me to initially suspect a 1948 as well, tooled to make the 8 look like a three. However, the 3 on this one looked really good to me.

    MikeNFL and I agree that it is the 4 in this date that looks tooled. This is what got me thinking because the reverse IS of course a wheatie. Therefore, if the 4 is altered than this could only have been a 1913, 1923, 1933 or 1953. I dont think any of these third digits even closely resemble a 4. You would have to add on a bit of metal to make a 1 into a 4.

    Anyways, my point in making this post was to hear people's opinions on how this particular fake was made, if it indeed is not just a copper plated steel or tooled 48. As the seller says, even under a 16x it is a good fake.
    Lincoln Cent & Libertad Collector
  • ldhairldhair Posts: 7,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Can't be a 1913 with initials on shoulder. That leaves 23, 33 & 53.image
    Larry

  • cheezhedcheezhed Posts: 6,011 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The vertical line making up the back of the 4 is not straight.

    Also, the seller states what he says is the weight, "This is an interesting coin. It weighs 3.11 grams.".

    Does anyone know the correct weight of a bronze (1944) war penny and a copper "normal" penny?
    Many happy BST transactions
  • joefrojoefro Posts: 1,872 ✭✭
    Good point ldhair, I should have known that image

    cheezhed: Red Book states:



    << <i>1943 - Weight 2.70 grams; 1944-1962 Weight 3.11 grams >>

    Lincoln Cent & Libertad Collector
  • richbeatrichbeat Posts: 2,288 ✭
    1923 and 1933 cents have tail-less 3's, so I doubt it's either of those. The 3 may or may not have been messed with, certainly not like the 4. I'm leaning toward not, and think that it is an altered 1953. image
  • DeadhorseDeadhorse Posts: 3,720 ✭
    Looking at that "4", my guess is that it's a re-tooled 23.

    Still, it's a pretty good job. A little better work on that 4 and it might have passed as the real deal. Ya never know, I just wonder how many copper '43s that have been certified are actually retooled? A skilled jeweler can do some remarkable things.

    Methinks the number might surprise a few of us.
    "Lenin is certainly right. There is no subtler or more severe means of overturning the existing basis of society(destroy capitalism) than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and it does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose."
    John Marnard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920, page 235ff
  • ldhairldhair Posts: 7,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Some pics for the fun of it.
    image
    image
    image
    image
    image
    Larry

  • ShamikaShamika Posts: 18,785 ✭✭✭✭
    Strange. I can only recall the 1953 having this style of 3, and yet changing a 5 to a 4 would be very difficult. I'm puzzled.

    Buyer and seller of vintage coin boards!
  • bhartman35bhartman35 Posts: 1,398
    Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way. Could the 3rd digit have been removed completely and then entirely new metal put on on top of it? Given the information we have about the weight, it seems likely that it's a 1953 cent, but since it would be relatively difficult to retool a 5 into a 4, my guess is that the 5 was removed completely and a 4 added on top of it (the way that people sometimes add mintmarks).
    If you haven't noticed, I'm single and miserable and I've got four albums of bitching about it that I would offer as proof.

    -- Adam Duritz, of Counting Crows


    My Ebay Auctions
    image
  • mr1931Smr1931S Posts: 6,416 ✭✭✭✭✭
    poorly done forgery...misshapen "4" was likely added after "5" planed off.

    Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.

  • carlcarl Posts: 2,054 ✭
    Then there is always the possibility that it is a realy 43 Copper Cent.
    Just badly beaten so appears fake. With modern machinery, I wonder how difficult it would be to actually start making coins like that.
    Carl

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