Why on earth would the US Mint make a US Cent with steel?
During World War II, there were Massive shortages of Copper. Copper was the main ingredient for Shell Casings, Bullets, Bombs and Guns for the war! The US Government was forced to forgo the copper they typically used for coins until they could find more elsewhere! The copper saved by making pennies out of Steel (rather than copper) was enough to meet the combined needs of “two cruisers, two destroyers, 1242 flying fortresses, 120 field guns and 120 howitzers” or enough for 1 and 1/4 million shells for Big Field Guns! WOW! What Demand! When first introduced, these Strange cents were “shunned” by the general population … they were often called “lead pennies”, “lead cents”, or “steelies”. When “Brand New”, the 1943 cents looked like and were often mistaken for dimes, and in 1943, making a 9 cent mistake was HUGE! When these cents corroded, they looked like slugs, hence the nick name, “lead pennies.” In 1945 the mint began to Withdraw steel cents from circulation! In the next 20 years th
