1943 Steel Lincoln Cents

Perhaps 3-in-1 machine oil will help preserve them.

I think Marve65 has the right idea. These coins in MS condition are not that expensive.about 25 dollars ish ish.

I just replied to your message on ebay. Both the zinc plating and the steel edges are fairly reactive, so corrosion spots are common. Fortunately, they made a lot of them, many probably still preserved in BU rolls, so it shouldn't be too hard to find a pristine mint state coin. You just need to avoid the many reprocessed coins.

Local coin shop is your best option. Generally, dealers know the plated coins and toss them into the junk pile. You'll find a nice MS coin easily and for cheap, like <$20 for a nice one.

Thanks guys. I followed hfjacinto's suggestion and went to Green Brook coin store on Saturday. I got what I thought was a really nice coin. I didn't see any spots at all on it. $6.00. I was especially interested in the edge of the coin. I could see the band in the middle of the edge where the zinc plating was either very very thin or missing. And this was only with a 4X eye loupe. I sure wish I was still working (to some extent only!!!) because then I would be able get the zinc plating thickness measured on an XRF thickness tester. The one at my work would do it if they had the needed zinc calibration standards, but we never plated zinc. I do know a company that does zinc plating and might be able to help me out.

The coin store had a pretty steady stream of people coming in to sell silver and gold coins/jewelry! I was pretty amazed. I even bought a 1986 Ellis Island $1.00, 1993 James Madison $.50 out of the silver scrap bags for silver scrap price. Filled two spots in my Type set with them! I wonder how this rush to sell silver will affect future availability of good grade coins for the collector.

Now to break out my Mirrorless camera and take some photos. That will be a whole new area for me to get into.