I like to collect a lot of different things. I’ve collected these wheat pennies for over 5 years. I just pick through my change when I buy something, and most of the time there is nothing, but every now and again I find one and add it to the collection. Yes those two “silver” pennies are real. They were struck in 1943 with steel because of a copper shortage during the war. None of this is really super rare, but it’s just a fun passive collection. I don’t really seek anything out.
Also, I somehow have ended up with this foreign currency over the years. Some from Canada, China, Pakastan, Saudi Arabia, and Jamaica.
Psyduck was sitting right there so I figured I’d include him as well. Haha.
I also have a passive coin collection! I started it after my great grandfather gifted me an old sealed Half Dollar coin when I was 7. I have a large tin filled with foreign currency mostly just because the art intrigues me and have a couple of silver nickels and dimes. I used to work in retail and often times tellers would just give me the foreign coins since we couldn’t really use them. I should do some research on some of them.
Thanks for sharing your wheat pennies! I always loved the look of them. Never knew they made silver pennies! What would you say is your rarest coin?
Unfortunately not. My oldest one is from 1921. After looking that specific coin up though, that would be awesome. It must be pretty rare.
@azulryu Awesome! It’s really cool looking at things this old from history. Even though, a some of my pennies are older, I would say the 1943 steel pennies are probably more rare, because they were only printed 1943-1944 if I remember correctly. I don’t think they are worth much at all though unfortunately. I’d like to find one in better condition than these.
The Lincoln cents struck in 1943 were actually made from steel, not silver. The mint switched to using steel instead of copper to produce the coins for just this single as the country had a shortage of copper due to WWII. They returned to using copper again in 1944. These steel cents are very cool but not rare or expensive at all as many were made (approx. 1 billion across all three mints that produced them). Also, loads of people thought they were cool and unique so many were set aside by casual coin collectors. Plus hoards of uncirculated examples (basically the equivalent of pack fresh) were set aside by more serious collectors and dealers.
Nothing rare but a nice, cool, unique piece of American history and trivia to reflect on.
Yeah, they are actually steel. Sorry for being misleading, haha. I always like to surprise my friends with them that don’t know about it. I do wish they were rare though.
