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Lincoln cent · 1944 · wrong-metal error

1944 Steel Penny: What It’s Worth and How to Test Yours

A real 1944 steel penny is one of the rarest US error coins: even a worn one sold for $23,790 in June 2026, and uncirculated ones have brought $108,000 to $180,000. The record is $490,500 for the finest 1944-S. A real one is silver-gray and sticks to a magnet; a normal 1944 penny is copper and doesn’t.

Updated October 22, 2026 · 11 sources

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The 1944-S steel cent that sold for $490,500, silver-gray zinc-coated steel
The record 1944-S steel cent · Photo: PCGS
Year and mints
1944: Philadelphia (no mark), Denver (D), San Francisco (S)
What’s different
Struck on a leftover 1943 steel blank instead of copper
Known today
About 25–30 Philadelphia, 7 Denver, 2 San Francisco
Weight
Steel 2.70 g · normal 1944 cent 3.11 g
Metal
Zinc-coated steel, magnetic
Official mintage
None: every one is a mistake

What it’s worth

With only about 35 known, every sale is an event. These are real auction results including the buyer’s premium.

ConditionPriceSale
VF35, moderately worn · Philadelphia (PCGS)$23,790Heritage, June 29, 2026 · source
AU Details, cleaned · Denver (NGC)$21,600November 2023 · source
MS63, uncirculated · Philadelphia$48,000Stack’s Bowers, August 2018 · source
MS64, uncirculated · Philadelphia (PCGS)$108,000Heritage, May 2024 · source
MS62, uncirculated · Denver (PCGS, CAC)$122,000Heritage, January 2026 · source
MS64, uncirculated · Philadelphia (PCGS)$168,000Heritage, January 2025 · source
$490,500The record: the finest 1944-S, PCGS MS66 (CAC), GreatCollections, January 5, 2025 · source

The record coin had sold for $373,750 in 2008, then the most ever paid for a Lincoln cent. The record for a Philadelphia steel cent is $180,000 (PCGS MS64, Heritage, June 2021).

How to tell if you have one

  1. Read the date and look under it: no letter is Philadelphia, D is Denver, S is San Francisco. All three exist in steel; the S is the rarest, with 2 known.
  2. Look at the color. A steel cent is silver-gray, not the brown or orange of a normal 1944 penny.
  3. Hold a magnet to it. Steel sticks; copper doesn’t. A silver-colored 1944 that ignores the magnet is a plated copper cent.
  4. Weigh it on a scale that reads to 0.01 g. Steel cents were made to 2.70 g, copper ones to 3.11 g. (A real one sold in 2026 weighed 2.9 g, so a little over 2.70 doesn’t rule it out.)
  5. Look hard at the last digit of the date. The most common fake is a 1943 steel cent with the 3 cut into a 4: it passes the magnet and the scale, so tool marks or an odd-shaped final 4 give it away.
  6. Send anything that passes to PCGS or NGC. A magnet and a scale can rule a coin out, but they can’t prove it’s real.
1944-S steel cent, heads side
1944-S on steel. Silver-gray, with the S under the date. Photo: PCGS
1944-S steel cent, wheat side
The wheat side of the same coin. Photo: PCGS
A normal copper-colored Lincoln cent for comparison
A normal copper cent. Copper-colored and not magnetic.

Coins that fool people

A 1943 steel cent with the date changed

Magnetic and the right weight, so only the date gives it away. Compare the last 4 with the first one and look for tool marks or the ghost of a 3.

A plated 1944 copper cent

Silver-colored, but it ignores a magnet and weighs about 3.11 g, the weight of a normal copper cent.

A re-plated steel cent

Bright and shiny with mushy detail. Re-plating strips the original zinc coating; NGC won’t certify reprocessed steel cents.

Cast or struck counterfeits

Soft detail and the wrong weight are the usual tells. Cheap copies of 1944 steel cents are sold online, so treat any uncertified one with caution.

The story

In 1943 the Mint made pennies out of zinc-coated steel to save copper for the war, then switched back to copper alloy for 1944.

A few steel blanks left over from 1943 stayed in the machines and were struck with 1944 dies by mistake, at all three mints. Nobody knows how many; about 35 are known today.

They turned up in change for years afterward: one was found in 1945, and a 1944-D steel cent was found in California in 1966.

Bob R. Simpson, a co-owner of the Texas Rangers, was the first collector to own all six wrong-metal cents: the 1943 copper and 1944 steel from each mint. His 1944-S is the record coin.

Silver-colored 1944 penny? Check it.

Most silver-looking 1944 pennies are plated or altered, but a real one is worth tens of thousands. Scan it with AnyCoins, then try the magnet and the scale.

  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.
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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 do I know if my 1944 penny is steel?

A real one is silver-gray, sticks to a magnet and weighs about 2.70 g. A normal 1944 cent is copper-colored, ignores a magnet and weighs about 3.11 g. Because a re-dated 1943 steel cent passes both tests, any candidate needs PCGS or NGC authentication.

How many 1944 steel pennies are there?

About 25 to 30 from Philadelphia, seven from Denver accounted for by PCGS, and two from San Francisco.

What is the most a 1944 steel penny has sold for?

$490,500, for the finest 1944-S (PCGS MS66, CAC), at GreatCollections on January 5, 2025.

What is a worn 1944 steel penny worth?

A Philadelphia one graded VF35 (moderately worn) sold for $23,790 at Heritage on June 29, 2026.

Sources

  1. GreatCollections: Record Coin Prices (1944-S steel cent, PCGS MS66 CAC, $490,500)
  2. CoinWeek: Rare 1944-S Lincoln Steel Penny to Sell at GreatCollections (2025)
  3. CoinWeek: 1944 Lincoln Cent, History and Value (2025)
  4. CoinWeek: 1944-D Lincoln Steel Cent, A Collector’s Guide (2026)
  5. CoinWeek: A Wrong-Metal 1944 Steel Cent Leads Heritage Error Coin Auction (July 2026)
  6. PCGS CoinFacts: 1944-S 1C Steel (#82731)
  7. PCGS CoinFacts: 1944 1C Steel (#82722)
  8. Heritage: 1944-D 1C on a zinc-coated steel planchet MS62 PCGS CAC (January 2026)
  9. Stack’s Bowers: 1944 Lincoln cent struck on a zinc-coated steel planchet, MS-63 (2018)
  10. Numismatic News: 1943 cents subject of differing alterations (2008)
  11. NGC: Counterfeit Detection, reprocessed steel cents (2018)

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.