Shell Casing Cents 1944 To 1946 Question

I would expect some crossover/transitional variations across the minting facilities after the war. I'm not aware of any do-it-yourself testing methods to make the distinction.

Of course, reading up on the matter of shell casings, it seems there is some controversy as to what sources were actually used (and to what degree they were used) in the production of planchets during that time.

95% copper, 5% zinc = Brass
95% copper, 2.5% tin, 2.5% zinc = Bronze
"shell casing cents" are actually called "gilding metal"

The mint used gilding metal in 1944-1946, AND again from 1962-1982, the 1943 cent is zinc coated steel (galvanized)just as possilbe there to be 1944s in brass or 1945s or 1946's, or any of the ones from 1962-1982.

in either case the weight is 3.11 grams. There's a difference, but really, there's no difference. If you want to send a bunch of cents for materials testing to find out the metallurgical content for a laugh, I suppose you could, but it won't be cheap to do it.

it's more like "no one knows, because no one really cares" kind of situation. it's literally the difference of 2.5% tin added to the composition or not. visually or weight wise, it's not significant enough, it's more of a "oh that's interesting, they used recycled shell casings for a bit".

I suppose if you could conclusively identify the exact composition of the alloy, some grading company might want to attribute it as an "off metal" if it applies to that year. So far though it doesn't seem like anyone is interested in taking on this endeavor or the costs to find out.
Honestly I'm not even sure it could be conclusively proven with a hardness test, the 2.5% variation of the alloy is so slight, and tin and zinc are close in hardness, but I don't know that for a fact.

clad you enjoy the hunt, I like searching coins also, I just think this Shell casing cent thing is a good story for the hobby, and that's about it. proving the alloy would be much more complicated and require specialized equipment I'd think.

Something else a bit interesting, I read in CoinWorld, this years silver proof set is going to have a twice plated proof cent. the clad proof set is announced by the mint and they don't mention it being a twice plated cent.

But, I'd think, if they do it, this is going to change the composition of the S proof Lincoln Cent even slightly. you'd think if they were going to twice plate it, it would be a selling point they would be marketing, it would come at an additional cost, So I'm thinking the 2021 cent in the clad proof set is once plated, and maybe the silver proof set for 2021 will be twice plated.

If the article from Coin World holds true. Article was here
https://www.coinworld.com/news/us-c...art-in-april

I saw 3 shell casing pennies listed at auction and did a quick web search on the topic. "Another forum" has members stating that spent casings were never actually used to mint coins during the war.

Can anyone confirm YES or NO? Curious...

I too have heard that shell casing was just a story.

I always thought that if they really had used spent shells from the firing ranges, somebody had to sort through and remove the occasional live round. Otherwise, you might find the melt being a little energetic.

I'm sure that would be the kind of task an enterprising Drill Instructor would use for minor malfeasance during training. Yet I never have seen a recollection from training camp of "I was caught smoking after lights out and the DI had me sort through two tons of shell casings to remove the live rounds".

I did a search of the online Boston Globe newspaper archive via my library and not one mention of spent casings and pennies... that doesn't mean it didn't happen, it simply means it wasn't in the paper. I DID, though, see mention of a desire for Indian Head pennies to be put back into circulation...

Nothing like a good footnote! :-)

Did a little more searching and did indeed find the following:

Except it doesn't say it was actually done. It lays out the result, but that could be from a small experiment.

They also don't lay out the amount of "Virgin Copper" required to achieve 85-15. The math says it's as much again as the mass of the 70-30 shell casings used.

1944 - 1.435 billion cents
1944D - 0.431 billion cents

total 1,865,978,000 coins

A 30cal carbine cartridge weighs approx. 4.6g

It works out to a bit over 1/2 billion cartridges and 2.4 million kg of virgin copper.