The Steel Cent of 1943

Hello everyone!
 I have been looking at some of my most recent posts, and I realized that I have wandered from the original goal of my blog; to share genealogy and to share some of my knowledge of history. So, I have written a short story on the steel penny of 1943. (Please hold tight! Pictures will come Saturday morning!)

The year was 1942. America was entering the midway point of her first year in World War II. The government was feverishly whipping up patriotic fervor, and the nation began to respond. People were buying war bonds, wives were working, men were going off to war, and the patriotic sons and daughters of the country were gathering scrap metal. Huge scrap drives were held to try and get metal to build tanks, planes, and trucks. Oh and one other thing: Bullets. Several billion bullets were made throughout the war. However, each bullet required a copper casing. These casing were necessary to the bullets. They contained the powder that was required to fire the bullet.The United States was beginning to run short on this precious metal, and the scrap drives around the country just weren't producing enough copper. So, the US Mint decided to take the copper out of the penny and the nickel. The nickel was easy; the mint just added more silver to the alloy. (yes, that makes them more valuable.) The penny however, was a different story. The penny had had basically the same alloy since its creation in the early 19th century. Every once and a while the weight was slightly changed, but generally it stayed the same- about 90% copper with tin, lead, and aluminium mixed in. Now, that alloy had to change. Scientists experimented with other metals, plastics, and even glass! However, in the end, they chose a low grade steel coin with a super small (super small as in .001 inch thick) coating of zinc to keep the metal from rusting- 99% Low grade steel, 1% zinc. Due to the steel, they are the first, (and the last) US coins that responded to a magnet.

 The Mint director announced the change on December 23rd, 1942. That January, the Mint began pumping the new pennies into the system. Unfortunately, the public did not like them. Vending machines refused to take them, thinking that they were metal slugs. The zinc wore off quickly, meaning that the coins rusted and fell apart. They were also mistaken for dimes due to their brilliance when they were fresh of of the press. Due to the sudden outcry, the Mint immediately began to look for new ways to make the coins, but they continued to make them at all three of the Mints. (San Francisco, Denver, and Philadelphia.) At the end of the year, 1,093,838,670 steel cents were minted.

Beginning in late 1943, used shell casings were picked up and recycled. These recycled cartridges had enough copper in them to make millions of coins, which the mint promptly did. Beginning in January 1944, the mint switched back to copper coins, therefore ending the run of the steel cent. Although it was only produced for one year, many of these cents still exist. This is because many American citizens began hoarding the coins, realizing that they were special. While the government bought back some of these coins, they did not publicize the buy-back and did not recover many of the coins. Today you can buy a steel cent in good looking condition for $ .50.

So there you have it. The story of one of America's most quirky and interesting coins. Thanks for reading! I hope to have another article like this one out soon!
JM

Joshua Tatum and the 1883 Nickel

Hello! Have you ever heard the term, “Don’t Josh Me!”? Well, as it turns out, this saying was inspired by an interesting story involving coins.

For younger readers, and older readers who don’t know, the nickel, currently has an image of our third president,

Thomas Jefferson. 

(Top, left) However, this is not the only 

design in the nickel’s storied history. Before the current one, there was another image of Jefferson. (Top, right) Even before that, there was the well known “Buffalo Nickel”. (Bottom left) And even before that, over 100 years ago, there was the V Nickel. (Bottom, right)

V means five, representing five cents. The V Nickel

was first minted in 1883, however, for the first

several months,underneath the V, the word 'cents' was not there. Several 'entrepreneurs' saw a slight resemblance between the five dollar gold piece and the five cent piece. They started plating, covering in a thin sheet of gold, five cent pieces in gold and passing them as five dollar pieces. Now, I know that looking at these pictures below, they don’t look the same, but in a busy shop, at a glance, a gold plated nickel looks similar to a five dollar piece. 

Five Dollar Piece

A gold plated V Nickel

An 1883 No Cents

One such ‘entrepreneur’ was named Joshua Tatum. He was a deaf mute, (someone who can’t hear or talk) which is very important to the story. He plated nickels, and then would go to a cigar shop and point at a pack of five cent pack of cigars. When the clerk got them, he would then pay with a plated nickel. The clerk, if he didn’t notice the difference, would give him $4.95 in change. If he noticed the difference, he would give him no change. (at the time, it was NOT illegal to plate coins. It WAS illegal to tell someone that it was a five dollar piece, not a nickel) After several months of this, the police finally caught on and arrested him. Now, remember that he was a deaf mute, which meant he couldn’t talk or hear. When he was taken to court, his lawyer argued that, when he walked into the shop and signaled which cigars he wanted, he never actually spoke to the clerk. He had no way of telling him the clerk that his change was off and never actually tried to tell the clerk that the nickel was a five dollar piece. Therefore, the lawyer argued, he was actually innocent. Now, while the jury knew that he was passing them, and that he knew what he was doing. They realized that he was, by the letter of the laws, innocent. He was acquitted. The meaning of the term “Don’t Josh Me”, means don’t mess with me, or don’t try to fool me. As Josh Tatum did to shopkeepers back in 1883.

Now, while there are some who believe that this story is not true, I do. I would like to thank ‘Coins Magazine’ for much of the information from this article, Mr. Mitch Ernst, the President of the Omaha Coin Club for telling me more about this story and selling me a coin which is possibly an actual Josh nickel! I hope that you all have a great day!

JM