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Moderator
 United States
56855 Posts |
1944-1946 they used shell cases so the color was a bit off from the normal bronze and of coarse the 1943 steelies. John1  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
996 Posts |
Original Large Cents were made of pure copper, at least as pure as the technology of the late 1700's and early part of the 1800's allowed. Small Cents were originally a copper-nickel alloy, accounting for the whiter composition of the Flying Eagle and early Indian Head cents. During the Civil War Indian Head cents were changed to Bronze, which is an alloy of Copper and tin and sometimes includes zinc in small amounts. This alloy stayed when Lincoln (Wheat) cents came around and was retained the entire run other than the 1943 steel cents and a minor difference in 1944-1946 due to WW2. In 1962 the composition was changed to Brass, which is very similar to Bronze but uses zinc as the hardener instead of tin. The various bronze and brass cents were composed of 95% copper and 5% tin and or zinc. In 1982 the cent was changed to mostly zinc but coated with copper. This remains today. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
The 1944 - 46 cents are also technically brass as well as they contained no tin. The 1942 cents were also technically bronze because they did contain tin but but just the merest trace. The mint used just 50 pounds of tin for the entire 6,494,510 pounds of 1942 wheat cents produced. Normally that amount of tin would have only produced 5,000 pounds of cents. (The law required the cent alloy to be 95% copper an 5% tin and zinc, but did not specify the exact proportions of tin and zinc. They had ben reducing the amount of tin all through 1941. In 1942 with tin on the restricted list the mint was not allowed any so they made do with the 50 pounds they still had.)
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
837 Posts |
Fascinating stuff !  Was there an amendment in the law that allowed the Mint to make pennies without tin between 1944-46 ? |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19930 Posts |
Quote:
1944-1946 they used shell cases so the color was a bit off from the normal bronze Shell case cents are a highly-debated, controversial topic. There is actually no concrete proof the mint used shell cases in a volume worth mentioning. Based on what I've read over the years, I suspect only a very small amount of casings (10's of pounds) were used mainly as a publicity stunt. Lincoln Cent Lover!VERDI-CARE™ INVENTOR https://verdi.care/
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Roger Burdette in his book United States Pattern & Experimental Pieces of WWII provides the documentation of the use of the shell cases. The shell cases arrived by the railroad car load every couple days. My copy of the book is at home or I could quote the specifics. If I can remember I'll bring it in and find the reference.
While the cents may not have been totally produced from shell cases, but they did use a LOT of shell cases not just a token amount.
Edited by Conder101
07/29/2014 10:52 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
I already knew that early large cents were (relatively) pure copper, but I never understood why. Maybe it was the desire to be taken seriously as a nation (avoid accusations of debasing their small denominations of currency,) but humans have known for thousands of years that pure copper isn't a very useful metal. That's why the "copper age" was extemely short and localized until bronze was invented, leading to the much more lengthy and global Bronze Age. I suppose the early cents held up against circulation alright, but it surprises me that we didn't switch to bronze at least after the Lousiana Purchase in 1804.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
937 Posts |
I have read many articles and a few books that speak of the 1946 shell casing cents. The planchets were most likely not cut directly from the shell casings like was done in the mint's early days when cents and Half Cent planchets were cut down from certain tokens and reject cents. The brass was melted and recycled into sheets that then were cut into planchets then minted into cents. If there was a 1946 cent made directly from shell cases would there not be a hole in every album for the ‘Shell Casing Cent'? WWII created massive surpluses in many military items such as ammo, medals, and scrap metals. It is highly likely that for years scrap shell cases were melted, a little pure copper added to it to get the proper percentage and cents were minted from it. But what do I know? |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
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It is highly likely that for years scrap shell cases were melted, a little pure copper added to it to get the proper percentage and cents were minted from it. That's what they did for the 1944 - 46 cents, melted the shellcases and added extra copper to bring the alloy up to 95% copper 5% zinc. The shell cases were actually a real headache for the Army because they didn't know what to do with them. They couldn't get anyone to accept them for recycling due to the possiblity of live shells being mixed in. Standard procedure was to just bury them but they were afraid that could be a public relations disaster with all the material rationing and the scrap drives being encouraged. The Mint agreed to accept them if the Army searched them first to make sure no live shells were in them. |
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Moderator
Australia
16804 Posts |
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I already knew that early large cents were (relatively) pure copper, but I never understood why. Maybe it was the desire to be taken seriously as a nation (avoid accusations of debasing their small denominations of currency,) but humans have known for thousands of years that pure copper isn't a very useful metal. That's why the "copper age" was extremely short and localized until bronze was invented, leading to the much more lengthy and global Bronze Age. I suppose the early cents held up against circulation alright, but it surprises me that we didn't switch to bronze at least after the Lousiana Purchase in 1804. They were basically just doing what every other country was doing. Prior to the mid-1800s, copper coinage everywhere was almost always pure copper. I believe it had more to do with coin minting technology rather than the usefulness of the end-product. Copper is a soft metal and easier to strike coins from than bronze or brass. A big guy with a hammer or the early coin presses couldn't generate the pressures needed to cold-strike a good clear coin design into the harder bronze alloy. The ancient Romans knew this, and had to pre-heat their bronze blanks prior to hand-striking them. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Brass is or supposed to be Copper of about 89%, Tin of about 1% and Zinc of about 30%. I use the term about due to there are numerous items made of so called Brass where the amounts of those metals varies.
Bronze is also Copper and Tin and various other materials such as Phosphorus, Manganese, Aluminum, Silicon, etc. The massive variations in what is called Bronze is done to create different results. For use in weapons during the Bronze age, almost anything was added to make the weapons stronger.
In coinage, as already well noted in this post, most people just say Copper. Since the US Mint does not actually make the Copper sheets used to make coins, any variations in percentages are possible.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
A copper alloy is bronze if it contains tin, brass if it doesn't and contains zinc.
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New Member
United Kingdom
2 Posts |
Here is some info from a few websites. The U.S. Coins " Red Book" (A Guide Book of United States coins, 417 pages, K. Bressett, Editor; Whitman Publishing; $14.95 Spiral Bound Softback) has been the standard value guide for coin collectors and dealers for six decades. It lists the prices for every known U.S. Coin, including Colonial coins, error coins, mint and proof sets, commemoratives, and gold coins. Key Dates and Rarities The following Indian Head and Lincoln wheat cents in any condition, are worth considerable more than common wheat pennies. As such, these coins are frequently counterfeit or altered from common wheat pennies. Therefore, before you start celebrating your early retirement with your new found fortune, have the coin authenticated by a reputable coin dealer or third party grading service. Indian Head • 1869 9/9 (Doubled "9" in the date) • 1873 Dbl Liberty ("LIBERTY" is doubled on the Indian's headdress) • 1877 • 1888 8/7 (The remnant of a "7" is underneath the last "8" in the date) • 1909 S Wheat • 1909-S VDB (small "S" below the date and "V.D.B." on the back at the bottom between the stems of the wheat ears) • 1909-S • 1914-D • 1922 No "D" (there is no mint mark below the date) • 1931-S • 1943 Bronze/copper (1943 were made out of zinc plated steel, not copper) • 1943-D Bronze/copper (1943 were made out of zinc plated steel, not copper) • 1943-S Bronze/copper (1943 were made out of zinc plated steel, not copper) • 1944 Steel (1944 were again made out of copper/bronze, some old steel blanks got minted in 1944 by mistake) • 1955/55 (doubled die variety) War Nickels 1942-1945 World War II prompted the rationing of many commodities. Nickel was highly valued for use in armor plating, and Congress ordered the removal of this metal from the five-cent piece, effective October 8, 1942. From that date, and lasting through the end of 1945, five-cent pieces bore the regular design but were minted from an alloy of copper, silver and manganese. It was anticipated that these emergency coins would be withdrawn from circulation after the war, so a prominent distinguishing feature was added. Coins from all three mints bore very large mintmarks above the dome of Monticello, and the letter 'P' was used as a mintmark for the first time on a U. S. coin. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Found the information on the shell case cents.
From letter to Philadelphia mint from Director Ross (National Archives record group 104, entry 328-H Box 3 "Philtdelphia Mint Operating Records)
"It is understood, of course, that you will use the expended shell casings, as agreed upon, while securing enough copper to "sweeten" them up to 95-5."
From another letter to the Philadelphia Mint in the same group
"It is presumed the the shells you have already received will be sufficient to meet your needs in preparing for the coinage that is to begin Jan 1, 1944, and that by that time ingots will be available from the contractor who will melt the shell cases to be supplied as per Bureau letter of Nov 20th."
Shell cases arrived in railroad cars every five days at each mint The consumption used for cents was 3,500 pounds of shell cases a day six days a week at Philadelphia. They were also used for a 2 franc coin at a rate of 21,000 pounds a day (those were not sweetened with extra copper)
The reference for that information is from a letter of Feb 28th, 1944 from acting Philadelphia Mint Superintendent Helen C Moore to Director Ross. The letter can be found in the same location as the previous two.
So the story about the 1944 - 46 cents being made from shell cases is no myth, and it was not just a small symbolic amount of shell cases. Most of the shell cases used were 50 caliber.
I was wrong about the 50 pounds of tin for all the 1942 cents that I mentioned earlier, that was just for the 85 million cents struck in San Francisco. That would make those cents 95% copper 4.992% zinc and .008% tin.
Edited by Conder101
07/31/2014 11:21 am
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Posted 07/28/2014 07:47 am
