Steel pennies contributed to U.S. patriotic spirit in 1943

During World War II, the U.S. government instituted rationing of certain commodities in support of the military effort. This list of items included sugar, meat, gasoline, tires and paper, according to The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, La.

Even the coins in Americans’ pockets were redesigned to help win the war, wrote Dr. Tyler Bamford, a military historian.

“As the United States accelerated production of everything from planes and ships to tanks and artillery shells after it entered the war in December 1941, the nation faced critical shortages of copper, zinc and tin.”

“In response,” Dr. Bamford said, “Congress passed a bill in December 1942 that authorized the U.S. Mint to explore alternative materials for pennies in an effort to conserve thousands of pounds of industrial metals for the war effort.”

The Mint’s director Nellie Tayloe Ross, the first woman to serve in that role, was up to the task. She had been appointed to head up the U.S. Mint by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 after distinguishing herself in leadership roles within the Democratic party.

(Nellie Ross was the first woman elected governor of the State of Wyoming in 1925. At the Democratic party national convention in 1928, Ross seconded the nomination of New York Gov. Alfred E. Smith for president. She received 33 votes from 11 states on the first ballot to be the party’s nominee for vice president. After the convention, Ross served as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and director of its Women’s Division.)

“After experimenting with materials ranging from tempered glass to plastics, the Mint decided to change the composition of one-cent coins from 95% copper, 4% zinc, and 1% tin to 99% low-grade steel with just a thin coating of zinc,” Dr. Bamford reported.

Beginning on Feb. 23, 1943, “the Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco mints churned out nearly 1.1 billion steel cents and, in doing so, saved more than 40,000 pounds of tin for the war effort,” Dr. Bamford said.

The changeover to steel pennies also saved enough copper to manufacture 1.25 million artillery shells and other ammunitions.

These new “war pennies” or “steelies” didn’t look like regular copper pennies. They were silver-colored and shiny.

 

Some people got them mixed up with dimes. The new coins also “confused” vending machines because they were lighter weight and magnetic.

The biggest problem with the war pennies was that they didn’t hold up well in circulation. 

Susan Headley, a coin collecting expert and writer, said that with normal use, “the zinc coating started to turn dark gray and almost black. If the coin was in circulation long enough, the zinc coating completely wore off, and the steel underneath would start to show through. When exposed to moisture, the penny would then begin to rust.” The steelies could get downright nasty to handle.

The U.S. Mint was on it. Under Nellie Ross’ direction in 1944, engineers figured out a way to reuse the metals from spent shell casings that were recovered by military authorities from proving grounds, firing ranges and training bases used by American troops.

Typically, these casings consisted of 70% copper and 30% zinc, so they were melted down with enough virgin copper added to bring the copper content up to 85% or 90%, producing an alloy that was acceptable for coinage. This mixture restored the penny’s traditional reddish-brown appearance.

The 1943 steelies are great souvenirs from the World War II era and are fun to collect, but their value rarely amounts to much more than just a few cents, according to the American Numismatic Association.