Have a 1943 silver penny? A 1944 silver penny? Or silver pennies from other years? Find out if your SILVER PENNIES are rare & valuable error coins!
⚡TIMESTAMPS FROM THE VIDEO⚡
00:00 Find out what your silver penny is made of and worth
00:53 About that spot on my nose…
02:30 Coin supplies used in this video
03:12 REAL silver pennies explained
04:33 Steel pennies that LOOK like silver pennies
05:53 Steel penny weights
06:11 Regular bronze penny weights
06:33 Use a magnet to identify steel vs silver pennies
07:28 Two ways to identify silver pennies NOT from 1943
07:57 LEGIT 1944 steel penny errors worth money
08:34 Examples of plated coins (aka FAKE error coins)
10:01 Silver penny error coins (aka LEGIT off-metal errors)
10:30 How valuable error coins are made at the U.S. Mint
11:17 Examples of off-metal errors worth money
12:30 Use a scale to identify steel vs silver pennies
15:06 Summary about all types of silver cents
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TRANSCRIPT:
Hello! This is Josh with The Fun Times Guide and today we’re talking about this. This is a SILVER penny. Or, is it really silver at all?
Well, a lot of folks ask about silver pennies, what they’re really made from, if they’re rare, and what they’re worth.
Your questions are answered in this video, so stay tuned!
So, a LOT of people reach out to me on The Fun Times Guide To Coins and ask me about silver pennies. They want to know what silver pennies are worth, if they’re rare, if their NON-1943 silver penny is indeed silver… or indeed rare… or indeed valuable.
And I think that it’s just the SLEW of questions I that I receive on that topic in general that has inspired me to make this video. I
I’m going to address at least the crux of those questions. You might have more questions. You can always drop me [comments] below if you’d like. I’ll be happy to answer!
But before I get into any coin topics, I want to take a quick moment and pivot to a much more serious concern. And a little bit of a PSA here for you on skin cancer…
Now, you may have seen when I did the intro to this video, a little spot here in my nose. Thankfully, that is not skin cancer. That is solar keratosis that was frozen off. BUT I’m telling you about that because… two things. First of all, you might have seen this little spot and go, “What’s that on his nose?” And the second thing is check your skin out! It’s amazing how many people get diagnosed with skin cancer every year. And you can prevent it in almost every case by looking at your skin and going to a licensed professional dermatologist. If you have any weird things that pop up in your skin, or rather like a weird mole or weird discoloration or dry patch that doesn’t look quite right… go to your skin doctor. Have them check that out for you. Make sure it’s nothing that’s super serious or that might become more serious down the road. It doesn’t matter what tone your skin is, how old or young you are. If something looks a little out of place on your skin, get it checked out. Don’t write it off — because it could be a very easy problem to fix. Maybe without a quick 4 or 5 second little cryotherapy, it could become much more serious down the road. So, please take care of your health. That’s the top thing above numismatics, above looking through coins, anything else. Your health is THE top priority. So, take care of yourself!
On that note, let’s go back to coins…
All righty. So, we have here a menagerie of coins that I’ll explain more about in a minute. We also have here a magnet — I’ll show you why that’s out. I’ve got here a coin scale — very important for what I’m about to show you. And my trusty coin loupe right here — it’s a 10X coin loupe, I’ve had it for years, it’s an HE Harris coin loupe. I’m not paid by anybody to say that. I’m just telling you what I have. It’s an HE Harris. It’s lasted me for years. Never failed me. I have here also a computer — I’ll show you why that’s here a bit later.
But the crux of this video is about these so-called “silver” pennies.
Before I go into silver pennies, I want to talk about REAL silver pennies. The only real silver pennies that were ever struck were made hundreds of years ago by England — during the 8th century and beyond. Basically, the first pennies ever made were silver coins — and they were known as pennies. Only Great Britain and its Commonwealth nations have ever actually had pennies as an actual denomination.
In the US, we have cents. I’ll show you here just for example. This is a 19… What is this?… 1942 Denver Lincoln wheat cent. It even says “one cent” on the back.
Having gone through that spiel about pennies and cents though, I can tell you I have for years referred to these coins here that are 1-cent coins as PENNIES.
I can tell you that most people I know, both collectors and non-collectors, call those coins pennies as well. It’s just part of the nomenclature. It’s part of the lexicon. And that’s okay. I’m not one of these pedantic people who go, “Oh, they’re cents. Don’t call them pennies!”
Call them what you want. They are officially known as one cent coins. I call them pennies — kind of off the cuff, you know… and just in general conversation. And that’s okay.
My bigger concern that I make sure you know about is that these are NOT silver pennies. I have here a 1943 dated silver penny, but in fact it’s not silver at all. I know it looks like it’s silver. It’s actually a silvery color, we could say. This is a zinc-coated steel cent.
You’re going, “Wait a minute. Why did the U.S. Mint strike pennies or cents from a zinc-coated steel composition?”
And the answer really is quite simple…
During World War II (which 1943 was during the height of U.S. involvement in World War II), there were many rations going on. Rations to preserve and save certain materials for the war effort. And one way that the U.S. Mint was able to contribute its efforts toward that cause was to save copper for ammunitions. And instead strike pennies from a steel-based planchet with a zinc coating to help prevent rusting and give the coin a shinier, more appealing appearance.
Over 1 billion (with a “B”) 1943 silver pennies were made in Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco. And I get why people call these SILVER pennies. I mean, it’s kind of… you know… it’s like a nickname for these coins. Especially by the NON-numismatic, you know, community.
I get it. But these are, in fact, steel cents. And they weigh 2.7 to 2.8 grams — you know, given tolerances. I’ll show you here on the scale just so you see what this weighs. And it comes back at 2.7 grams. It’s within tolerances. So this is a regular… this is a regular steel cent.
Now let’s compare that though to the weight of a bronze cent — which generally weighs 3.1 grams when you’re rounding. It can weigh 3 grams to 3.2, given tolerance. This is right there about where it should be at 3.1 grams.
That will be important in a minute! I’ll show you why it’s important to have a coin scale with you when you want to, you know, see what your silver penny is really made from.
One way that you can tell a steel cent from basically a nonferrous metal coin is by using a magnet. Now, watch this! This is a steel cent, right? Watch… That steel cent stuck right to the magnet!
I’m going to show you a different one. Here’s another steel cent right here. Watch… See that? Now… Pretty cool, right?
Bronze cents do not stick to magnets. Nor do silver coins. Okay, there’s a steel cent — just so you see. Nor do even copper-nickel clad coins. That’s just the steel cent sticking to it. I just want to show you… Here’s a copper-nickel clad dime right here. Right? Okay? Watch… Does NOT stick to a magnet! But the steel cents do.
If you have a penny that appears to be silver that’s NOT from 1943, I want you to do two things…
First of all, I want you to WEIGH that coin and see what it comes back as with the reading. If it is 3.1 grams, it is most likely a regular bronze cent that has been plated with silver or pewter or maybe even mercury — to look like a rare transitional error.
In fact, there is a 1944 steel cent that was produced in very small quantities by accident. It is basically an off-metal transitional error. Those are worth a ton of money! And because a lot of people know that, a lot of folks try to pass off 1944 bronze cents that have been plated with silver or pewter or some other kind of silvery color to try to fool people and make them think that they’ve got a rare 1944 steel cent.
It’s simple, folks. If a 1944 silver penny does NOT stick to a magnet, it’s NOT a steel scent!
I just want to show you an example here of a plated coin. This is actually a coin I came across in change from a grocery store many many years ago. It’s a 1976 penny. And I think it has like gold plating on it. And just so you can see here what this weighs… This is going to weigh about 3.1 grams. We’ll see what the scale says today… 3.1 grams. So, it’s just a regular bronze cent with a gold plating.
Now, a lot of folks would think this is a GOLD penny — because it looks like a gold penny. But again, go to the scale, you know, to see what your coin weighs. If it weighs about the same as a standard example of the coin if it were not, you know, gold or silver… it’s most likely an altered piece with a plating to make it appear like a rare coin.
And that’s why, you know, I’m a big advocate of having a great coin scale. This is not any super expensive model. This is a base model gram scale. I bought it from Amazon many years ago for about $10. You could probably find one today very similar to this for… you know, an inflation adjusted price that’s equivalent to about $10 back in what… 2018 when I bought this scale… or 2019… somewhere in there.
A magnet… It’s not a very visually attractive piece, but this will help you determine if you have a steel cent or a NON-steel cent.
With all those things being mentioned, I do want to talk about ACTUAL silver pennies…
Now, I’m not talking about the ones from like the 8th century England that were made from silver. But rather off-metal errors!
There actually ARE silver pennies, right, that were struck on a 90% silver planchet that would be used for a dime. And because of the way the Mint works…
Before I go into anything further, I want you to understand how coins are made. If you know how coins are made, you can be able to kind of tell for yourself what really is an error versus a post-Mint alteration. And if you know how coins are minted, then the logical process of elimination will tell you whether or not you have a coin that COULD have been made by the Mint… OR if it was likely altered outside of the Mint.
And because of the way the coin process works at the Mint, it actually is possible on rare occasions for a dime planchet to end up on a penny (or one cent) press.
And I do want to show you here on my computer. Let me go ahead and log in quickly. Isn’t that a pretty scene? Look at that. Okay, let’s go ahead. I’m going to go ahead and look down as I input… Look at those beautiful coins… My pin code.
Okay, I’m here on the Heritage Auctions website. It is www.ha.com.
They have sold many MANY off-metal errors over the years. Okay? And you see my search term here is “silver lincoln cent dime”. Why did I put that in? Because there actually ARE off-metal errors in which a Lincoln cent DESIGN ended up on a dime planchet. In those cases, it IS possible to have a silver penny! Because it’s basically a Lincoln cent that was struck on a silver planchet.
You could also have one that was struck on a copper-nickel clad dime planchet. So, a copper-nickel clad penny.
But at the end of the day, they’re actually off-metal errors and NOT really silver pennies that were made from silver just for the sake of it.
As you see, such off-metal errors can be worth a lot of money! I mean, look at this… This is a 1943-S Lincoln cent struck on a silver dime planchet. This sold in 2015 for over $8,800.
And if you look at all these prices here… these prices realized… these off-metal silver penny errors are worth a lot of money.
So, how do you tell if you have a steel cent or a silver cent? Or even a copper-nickel clad cent?
Well, we go back to our old trusty scale right here — which I’ll put back “on”. I want to show you a silver dime and what that weighs… It comes back at 2.5 grams. Right?
Let’s check out the copper-nickel clad dime… 2.3 grams. And this is rounding and within tolerances, but you see here 2.3 and 2.5 grams.
If you have an honest-to-goodness silver penny or an off-metal error, it’s NOT going to weigh 3.1 grams. Right? It’s not going to weigh, you know, 2.7… 2.8 grams like for a steel cent. It’s going to weigh either 2.5 grams…
Well… There we go! Okay… It was trying to figure out what the coin weighed there.
…OR it’s going to weigh about 2.3 grams. It’s NOT going to weigh 3.1 grams. Because at the end of the day, it was simply that the DESIGN of the Lincoln cent ended up on a planchet. It’s not going to change the weight of the planchet. It’s going to end up being what the planchet should have weighed.
And THAT’s how you tell, in part, if you have an off-metal error… or a steel cent… or you have a plated penny.
I always advocate to go ahead and if you think you have a rarity and things are checking out on your end, get it evaluated by a professional coin dealer or third-party grader. And they can go ahead and determine if you have an authentic piece. And they can go ahead and, you know, give you a better idea as to its value and such.
But these are the examples I wanted to show you about silver pennies. And I hope that this helps you to at least better understand how to tell what you have… if you have a steel cent or a plated cent or an honest-to-goodness off-metal error or transitional error.
Again, hit me up in the questions and comments below. I’m always happy to answer your comments to the best of my ability. If I don’t have the answer, I’ll refer you to the people who might.
Of course, you can go to Coins.TheFunTimesGuide.com. We have many articles on there that cover ALL of these topics. You can ask me questions on there as well. I’m always happy to answer them to the best of my ability.
But I hope this gives you some better perspective on what YOU might have… what your silver penny… or steel cent… or perhaps off-metal error REALLY is and what it might be worth.
Well, there you have it. That is my little talk on silver pennies. I hope you now can determine if you have a 1943 steel cent like this one right here. Or perhaps a 1944 steel cent (which I hope you DO have!) that sticks to a magnet, weighs about 2.7 to 2.8 grams and is the real McCoy — a real error worth thousands of dollars. Or perhaps a 1962 bronze cent that was plated in silver or steel or pewter — made to look like a steel cent that really isn’t, and it’s just worth its face value or its bronze value. Or perhaps you have a real honest-to-goodness off-metal error… a Lincoln cent that was struck on a dime planchet (which I hope you ALSO have — because that’s worth a lot of money and quite rare as well!).
Whatever the case is, I hope this video helped you. And I hope it helped to inspire you to go ahead and check your skin — make sure that you’re healthy.
So, on that note, I am Josh with The Fun Times Guide. Thank you for watching and healthy regards!
