1943 Steel Penny Value

Philadelphia made 684,628,670 steel cents, more than the other two mints together. They carry no mint letter. A worn one is worth only a little more than face value. Graded MS-67 coins have sold for $82.25 and $288 at auction, and one graded MS-68+ sold for $33,600 in 2020.

Denver made 217,660,000 and marked them with a small D under the date. A coin graded MS-68 sold for $2,291.25 in 2013.

San Francisco made 191,550,000, with an S under the date. One graded MS-67 sold for $576 in 2020, one graded MS-68 for $2,520 in 2024, and one graded MS-68+ for $19,200 in 2021.

All three mints made hundreds of millions, so the mint letter matters far less than condition. The big money is only in the very top grades, where steel cents are rare because they rusted so easily.

A few copper blanks were left in the presses when the Mint switched metals. They were struck with the 1943 date and slipped out with the rest. An estimated 40 were struck and 13 are confirmed to exist. A 1943-S struck on copper sold for $456,000 in 2026, and a Philadelphia one for $317,250 in 2013.

Other wrong blanks turn up too. A 1943 cent struck on a silver dime blank sold for $3,360 in 2018. One struck on a blank meant for a Netherlands coin sold for $3,818.75 in 2013. A cent struck over a 1943 Mercury dime brought $33,600 in 2018.

Steel also turned up where it didn't belong. A few cents dated 1944 were struck on leftover steel blanks. One from San Francisco sold for $373,750 in 2008. So a steel cent dated 1944 deserves the same magnet test in reverse. See the other dates worth keeping on our penny value page.

A few copper blanks were left in the presses when the Mint switched metals. They were struck with the 1943 date and slipped out with the rest. An estimated 40 were struck and 13 are confirmed to exist. One from the Denver mint sold for over $1.7 million in 2010.

You can check yours at the kitchen table. You need a magnet and, if you have one, a small scale.

• Use a magnet. A steel cent jumps to it. A real copper cent does not move.
• Weigh it. A steel cent weighs about 2.7 grams. A real copper cent weighs 3.11 grams.
• Compare the two results. A coin that looks brown but still sticks to the magnet is steel, whatever its color.

If your brown 1943 cent does not stick to a magnet, don't clean it and don't sell it yet. Send it to a grading service to be checked. Until one of them confirms it, treat it as unproven.

Condition does most of the work. The tables above show real sales, and the gap between a worn coin and a nearly perfect one is huge. Use our coin value guide if grading terms are new to you.

• Shine. A coin with its first bright zinc surface is the one collectors pay for.
• Rust and dark spots. Zinc wears off and the steel under it rusts. Rust can't be undone, and it lowers the value.
• Replating. Dealers once stripped old steel cents and gave them a new coat of zinc or chrome. These look too bright and too even. Collectors pay little or nothing extra for them.

Don't polish a steel cent to make it look better. Cleaning leaves fine scratches that buyers spot right away. A dull coin that was left alone is worth more than a shiny one that was scrubbed.

In 1943 the country needed copper for shell casings and military gear. The Mint tested other metals and settled on steel with a thin coat of zinc. That's why the coin looks silver or gray and not brown.

People didn't like it much. The new cent was easy to mix up with a dime. It stuck to the magnets that vending machines used to catch steel slugs. And it rusted, because the edge of each coin had no zinc to protect it.

The Mint dropped steel after one year. Cents dated 1944 through 1946 were made of brass from salvaged shell casings. Many steel cents were pulled and destroyed, but plenty stayed in pocket change into the 1960s. That long life in circulation is why so many are worn today.