AnyCoins logoAnyCoins

Lincoln cent · 1943 · zinc-coated steel

1943 Steel Penny: What It’s Worth and What to Check

Most 1943 steel pennies are worth a few cents to a few dollars: over a billion were made. Certified uncirculated ones sell for about $20 to $80, and only near-perfect coins bring thousands, with a record of $33,600. What’s worth checking is the D under the date and whether your 1943 is steel at all: a copper one is worth six figures.

Updated October 22, 2026 · 7 sources

Scan your coin with AnyCoinsFree on iPhone · first 3 appraisals on us
A 1943 zinc-coated steel Lincoln cent, silver-gray
A 1943 steel cent · Photo: PCGS
Year and mints
1943: Philadelphia (no mark), Denver (D), San Francisco (S)
Made
1,093,838,670 across all three mints
Metal
Steel with a thin zinc coating · magnetic · no silver
Weight
2.70 g (copper cents weigh 3.11 g)
Why steel
Copper was needed for World War II
Grading numbers
PCGS #2711 (P), #2714 (D), #2717 (S)

What it’s worth

Condition is the whole story with steel cents. Worn ones are common; certified near-perfect ones are scarce. Prices marked as a guide aren’t individual sales.

ConditionPriceSale
Good to Fine, well worn13–15¢Greysheet wholesale price guide, 2021 · source
VF, moderately wornabout $7Average of eBay sales, October 2026 (PriceCharting guide) · source
MS65, uncirculated · 1943-S (PCGS)$17GreatCollections, November 2021 · source
MS66, uncirculated (PCGS)$55eBay, October 2026 (recent MS66 sales ran $21.53 to $79.99) · source
MS68+, near perfect · 1943-S (PCGS, CAC)$19,200Stack’s Bowers, March 2021 · source
$33,600The record for a regular steel cent: a 1943 Philadelphia, PCGS MS68+ (CAC), Stack’s Bowers, November 2020 · source

Top-grade prices swing hard: two 1943-S MS68+ coins sold for $15,500 to $19,500 in early 2021, and the next one brought $3,840 in 2022 (CoinWeek).

How to tell if you have one

  1. Check it’s silver-gray and sticks to a magnet. That’s a normal 1943 steel penny.
  2. Find the mint mark under the date: none (Philadelphia, 684.6 million made), D (Denver, 217.7 million) or S (San Francisco, 191.6 million).
  3. Judge the wear. Rust spots and dark gray surfaces are normal on circulated coins, because the zinc never covered the edge. These are worth cents to a few dollars.
  4. If it’s mirror-bright all over, even on Lincoln’s face, it was probably stripped and re-plated. Those are altered coins worth little, and NGC won’t certify them.
  5. On a 1943-D, check the D with a magnifier for a second D punched slightly off: the 1943-D/D variety.
  6. If your 1943 is copper-colored and doesn’t stick to a magnet, stop: it could be the rare bronze error. See the 1943 copper penny.
A normal 1943 steel cent
Normal 1943 steel. Silver-gray and magnetic. Photo: PCGS
The rare 1943 cent struck in bronze
The rare one: a 1943 struck in copper. Photo: PCGS

The 1943 errors worth checking for

  • Struck in copper instead of steel. About 20 to 25 are confirmed, and they sell for $186,000 and up. See the 1943 copper penny.
  • 1943-D/D repunched mint mark (FS-501). A second D punched slightly off from the first. Heritage sold a PCGS MS67 (CAC) for $8,400 in January 2025 and a PCGS MS63 for $342 in March 2026.
  • The 1944 steel penny. The opposite mistake: a 1944 struck on a leftover 1943 steel blank. About 35 are known. See the 1944 steel penny.

How many were made

MintMint markStruck
Philadelphianone684,628,670
DenverD217,660,000
San FranciscoS191,550,000

Mintages from PCGS and CoinWeek.

Coins that fool people

A re-plated steel cent

Too shiny everywhere, with flat luster and no fine lines radiating from the center. Sold as novelties, sometimes as “brilliant uncirculated”. Collectors treat them as altered.

A copper-plated steel cent

Made to pass as the rare copper 1943. It’s copper-colored but sticks to a magnet.

A silver dime

When new, steel cents were often mistaken for dimes. The cent has Lincoln and says ONE CENT.

The story

Copper was needed for ammunition and war equipment in World War II, so the Mint struck 1943 pennies in zinc-coated steel. It’s the only regular US circulating coin with no copper in it.

People mixed the new cents up with dimes, and vending machines with magnets meant to catch steel slugs caught them too.

The blanks were punched from zinc-coated steel, which left the edges bare, so the coins rusted easily in people’s pockets.

For 1944 the Mint went back to a copper alloy, made partly from salvaged brass shell casings, and later pulled many steel cents out of circulation and destroyed them. Over a billion were made, so ordinary ones are still common.

Common steel cent or rare error?

Most 1943 pennies are worth pocket change, but the errors are worth thousands or more. Scan yours and AnyCoins tells you which one you have.

  1. Open AnyCoins and photograph the heads side, then the tails side, in good light.
  2. AnyCoins identifies the coin and checks it for known errors and varieties.
  3. You see its condition estimate, a price range by condition and what the same coin has sold for.
Download on the App Store

Why collectors use AnyCoins

  • Photograph both sides and it names the coin: country, year, mint and denomination.
  • Values from real sales: a price range by condition and recent sales of the same coin, not a guess.
  • A condition estimate from your photos, so you know which row of the price table you’re in.
  • Checks the coin for known errors and varieties, the kind that turn a cent into thousands.
  • Melt value for silver and gold, and the mint that struck it on the Mint Map.

Questions people ask

How much is a 1943 steel penny worth?

Most worn ones are worth a few cents to a few dollars. Certified MS66 coins sell for about $20 to $80, near-perfect MS68+ coins for thousands, and the record for a regular steel cent is $33,600 (PCGS MS68+ CAC, Stack’s Bowers, 2020).

Is a 1943 penny silver?

No. It’s steel with a thin zinc coating, which makes it look silvery. It contains no silver and no copper.

Why does my 1943 penny stick to a magnet?

Because it’s steel, like almost every 1943 penny. A 1943 cent that does not stick may be the rare copper error and should be authenticated.

Why is my 1943 penny rusty?

The zinc coating covered only the faces, not the edge, so the steel underneath rusts easily.

My 1943 penny is very shiny. Is it valuable?

Probably not. Many were stripped and re-plated to look new. These are altered coins that collectors value little, and NGC won’t certify them.

Sources

  1. COINage: 1943 Steel Lincoln Cents Worth Thousands (Greg Reynolds, 2022)
  2. NGC: Counterfeit Detection, reprocessed steel cents (2018)
  3. CoinWeek: Impressive 1943-S Steel Cent Offered by GreatCollections (2022)
  4. CoinWeek: Legendary 1943-S Bronze Lincoln Cent Returns to the Market (2026, steel mintages)
  5. PCGS CoinFacts: 1943-D 1C (#2714)
  6. US Mint: What’s So Special About the 1943 Copper Penny? (1999)
  7. PriceCharting: 1943 Lincoln Wheat Penny sales log

Prices are public auction results including the buyer’s premium unless marked as a price guide. A coin’s value depends on its exact condition and on having it certified by a grading service such as PCGS or NGC.