Wartime Coins and memories

[YeshuaIsa53]

Saw a penny at a gas station this morning on the concrete and left it. Hours passed, and we were looking through things at a consignment shop.

Came across an old picture frame with coins displayed neatly in it today. They are coins from 1943, 1944, and 1945. The things we take for granted and forget so easily amaze me.

The 1943, 1943D, and 1943S pennies are steel. There seems to have been a demand for copper. Imagine that. Something to think about, for sure.

As we were fighting to conserve precious supplies for World War II, the US Mint diverted valuable metals to the war effort. 1942 through 1945 were made from the release of stockpiles of raw nickel and are called the Silver Nickel issue.

What really had me thinking off the charts was the remembrance of the 1944 and 1945 Emergency Coins pennies. They were made from salvaged shell cases. Think seriously about that.

Next time you see a penny on the ground and don't pick it up, you may get a wartime lesson later in the day. The steel pennies have a slight tarnish near the edges, but the rest look unhandled and mint. Reminded me of my younger days, too.

I like where the framed coins have taken me today. Thought more deeply of an Uncle's grave we went by, as he was shot down during those times. The next cemetery was so filled with WWII graves. I found myself thinking about different things differently today.

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

I have a 1943 steel cent, it's my birth year.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

 

[Old 44 Guy]

I believe war nickels were 15% or more silver. We had at that time more silver than nickel. Nickel was used in the war effort. Later, indeed, artillery shells were used for copper cents,44 & 45. Have several in my collection.

 

[Targets Guy]

I always save '43 pennies for my sis. It was her birth year. Don't see many these days. Just seeing a "wheat" penny these days in change is a rarity.

And don't forget; find a penny and give it away and you'll have luck for the rest of the day

 

[BearBio]

Received a 1941 nickel at a garage sale just yesterday. Ironically, I had a partial box of 1943 45 Auto for sale and nobody even noticed it!

(FYI: Steel cased)

 

[jlrhiner]

Picked this up at an auction a loooooong time ago.

 

[YeshuaIsa53]

Picked this up at an auction a loooooong time ago.

That is very similar to what I bought yesterday. $20.
Helps to think how serious war is.

Couldn't see anywhere stating the date is was made. Anyone know?

Steel cases for the 45 Auto. How were they priced, I wonder?

 

[two-bit cowboy]

You might recall seeing these images before: a still life study of '43. The Victory shipped to Navy Norfolk on December 15, '43.

The '44 Wyoming license plates were cardboard.

Thanks for the post.

 

[kenv1950]

Not coins , but memories. My Dad sent these from where he had stopped. Army Air Corp. Typed on each one when he was there.

 

[Tom S.]

Here's some other factoids about those coins:

Pennies: As mentioned, in 1943, the mint started making pennies from zinc plated (to prevent rust) steel, but a few were also struck from copper. Those copper pennies are worth a LOT of money today. Likewise, in 1944 when the steel cent was abandoned, a few 1944 pennies were made of steel. Like the 1943 copper pennies, they command a premium price.

On to the nickels: Yes, the percentage of the metal that gave the 5 cent coin it's nickname was reduced and silver was added. The nickel change wasn't as clean cut as the penny change was with some nickels in 1942 having the standard nickel content and others having silver. That wasn't the only change, as the mint mark was enlarged and placed over top of Monticello on the reverse of the coin instead of to the right between Monticello and the coin's rim. The mint marks were 'P', 'D' and 'S' which stood for Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco where mint facilities. The pre-silver nickels with no mint mark were made in Philadelphia, while those made in Denver or San Francisco carried a really small 'D' or 'S'.

One last fact: an enterprising counterfeiter some how got a hold of some old dies and stated making his own nickels. One of the things that got him caught was he made a bunch using dies with the 1944 date on the obverse (heads) side of the coin, but a 1938 or 1939 reverse (tails) - that had no mint mark. Since all 1944 coins had the large mint mark above Monticello, the coins with no mint mark stood out. Coming from already well worn dies, they weren't in very good condition either. If you happen to stumble across one of these coins, being counterfeit, it is illegal to own, though I don't think the Secret Service will be beating down your door to get it.

 

[hoc9sw]

Another thought from the collector side. Many of the steel pennies have been cleaned to be put in these sets. That significantly reduces the value to a serious collector. Doesn't hurt a set that you want to be pretty in a case, but it is better to have sets with the original finish.

I've also seen dipped / polished silver nickels. They should have a patina like other older silver coins that match the level of use they withstood.

When I was actively looking at every coin that passed my hands, I found a lot of silver nickels, and more than a few nasty, rusty steel pennies. During the Hunt Bros drive up of the price of silver, I traded most of my junk silver far a few small gold pieces. Then a burglar decided he wanted them more than I did.

 

[Highlands]

Copper Shortage

Since copper was a restricted war material:

"In the middle of World War II, Secretary of War Henry Stimson asked Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau if he could borrow some of the government's silver on repository in West Point, N.Y. With metal in high demand for weaponry, silver was needed for a top-secret project. In this case it was silver's electrical properties, not its monetary value which made it important. The secret project was being carried out at several undisclosed locations and required immense resources.

Silver was usually handled in amounts measured in ounces, but this time the Army was asking for tons. So great were the Army's requirements that almost 15,000 tons of silver -- 30 million pounds -- were withdrawn from federal vaults over two years, taken to a factory in New Jersey, and formed into coils of wire. Shipped to Wisconsin in train cars watched over by armed guards, the coils were fashioned into magnets. The magnets in turn went back east to Oak Ridge, Tennessee where they were put into action.

At Oak Ridge huge currents of electricity flowed through the coils, producing potent magnetic fields used to separate different types of uranium. Only uranium-235 atoms, slightly lighter than the more prevalent uranium-238, could blow apart in the kind of chain-reaction explosion that occurs in an atom bomb. The enriched U-235, obtained using the silver magnets in a painstakingly slow process, eventually found its way into the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

Cameron Reed, a physics professor at Alma College in Michigan, looked at government microfilms obtained from the National Archives to trace the odyssey of the silver from New York to Oak Ridge. Reed said that if all the silver borrowed by the Army were made into a cube, the dimension of each side would be 35 feet.

Although it took many years, all the silver was returned to the Treasury. General Leslie Groves, the head of the Manhattan Project which built the first nuclear weapons, was so scrupulous about returning the silver to the Treasury. He insisted that everything that had come in contact with the silver be scrubbed so that no shavings were lost. When in 1970 the final bars of silver were returned by federal nuclear officials, only about four-hundredths of one percent could not be accounted for."


Read more at: 400 Bad Request

 

[Citiboy289]

Great Thread Maybe not War Time But when I was younger ( much younger ) and they were pulling all the silver from circulation my best friends dad was an Owner of a 2 car Taxi service in NYC.
Each night his drivers would come to his house and empty their coin " shooters " His dad would carefully sit at the kitchen table and remove all the silver coinage and put it in coffee cans. My friends mom would scream " we need that money to eat " He would just smile and continue sorting.
I lost track of my friend ( military, college and just general life), But made contact with him in about 1985. Just in general conversation I asked about all the silver his dad had collected.
My friend smiled and said that during the Hunt Brothers push of silver in 1980 His dad cashed out at $55.00 per oz. Purchased a nice retirement home on several acers and enjoyed his remaining years.
Just an old memory

 

[2152hq]

I have a 1910 Ross Sporter, 280 Ross caliber. A deer camp rifle for sure.
Broken toe to the stock with the steel butt plate bent over as a repair. Plenty of scars in the wood.
The front sight blade is a replacement made from a steel War-Time penny.

I plan on fixing up some of the obvious damage to the rifle,,but that front sight blade insert made from the penny will stay.
Just seems right.

 

[jbtrucker]

I have a 1943 wheat penny and what I believe is WW2 Japanese liberty money bills and coins that belonged to my dad.

 

[ExRanger714]

stolen from Time magazine:

The Most Expensive Penny - Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About the Penny - TIME

"The 1943 copper-alloy cent is one of the most enigmatic coins in American numismatics — and reportedly the most valuable Lincoln penny of all. Just 40 of the coins — probably created by accident, on copper-alloy one-cent blanks left in the presses in the wartime years when pennies were converted to steel — are known to exist. The first 1943 copper cent was sold in 1958 for more than $40,000. In 1996, another went for a whopping $82,500. But those sales pale in comparison with the latest: this week, a dealer in New Jersey sold his 1943 penny for a staggering $1.7 million."