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 Replies: 30 / Views: 4,265 |
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Valued Member
United States
178 Posts |
and if the answer is "just sometimes", how can you tell the difference?
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
94367 Posts |
i have no idea.  |
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Valued Member
United States
301 Posts |
Quote:
and if the answer is "just sometimes", how can you tell the difference? Well first the correct term is " Shell Case Pennies" It is unknown if the entire mintage of these coins was struck only from spent shell casings or just a smaller portion of the total mintage. However, what is known for sure is the composition of the pennies made from 1944 through 1946 is different than from other years. The composition of the 1944, 1945, and 1946 shell case pennies is 95% copper, 5% zinc. However, the bronze Lincoln cents made before and after (not counting 1943, the year steel pennies were made) also contain some tin. Though a minor difference, it's a noteworthy one. Virtually all circulated shell case cents look identical to any other old, worn copper pennies, with these caveats: Some slight color difference between uncirculated shell case pennies and Mint State versions of other bronze Lincoln cents made before or after. Many veteran collectors notice more vibrant toning on the Lincoln wheat cents made from 1944 through 1946 with many showcasing pinks, violets, and purples as well as spotty or mottled toning. This could have been caused by impurities in the metal. I have many of the colors place aside of my regular looking L/Cents of that era. So given all that, can I prove it? ,.....well only by the word of the US mints historical statistics and documented practices of that time are we just going to have to "Believe or Not" 
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4381 Posts |
Well, you can draw some conclusions...
Most of the metal used would have been virgin copper. The "shell casing" covers variations from the pre-war standard of 95% copper 5% tin/zinc. But it can't mean that every single coin was minted from reclaimed shell casings - it would have taken far far too many of them.
1944 P 1,435,400,000 minted
1944 D 430,578,000
1944 S 282,760,000
1945 P 1,040,515,000
1945 D 266,268,000
1945 S 181,770,000
1946 P 991,655,000
1946 D 315,690,000
1946 S 198,100,000
Total: 5,142,736,000 coins
at 3.11g each that's 15993.90896 metric TONS of copper/zinc alloy.
Each cartridge weighs 12.6g of which 7.1g is the bullet and 10-16 grains (call it 0.7g) of powder, each casing weighs about 4.8g.
If somebody had to sweep up 3.3 billion cartridges from the training ranges, I think we would have heard about it.
-----Burton 50 year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973) Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, OnLine Coin Club Owned by four cats and a wife of 40 years (joined 1983) |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
59664 Posts |
Very good question.  I learned something new from this thread. Errers and Varietys.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
13688 Posts |
Excellent analysis @BStrauss3. Take a look at my other hobby ... http://www.jk-dk.artToo many hobbies .... too much work .... not enough time. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3144 Posts |
I think much of the metal that was reclaimed for cent production included the very large casings from artillery shells, much larger than rifle casings. In any event, I've read somewhere (reference escapes me at present) that the reclaimed metal was added to standard alloy production, and varied the final alloy only slightly, but somewhat noticeably.
"Nummi rari mira sunt, si sumptus ferre potes." - Christophorus filius Scotiae
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Moderator
United States
164276 Posts |
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I think much of the metal that was reclaimed for cent production included the very large casings from artillery shells... the reclaimed metal was added to standard alloy production, and varied the final alloy only slightly, but somewhat noticeably. These two points were always my assumption.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
977 Posts |
I recall reading years ago (and sorry, I cannot recall where) that the metals CONTAINED recovered shell casings, and were not exclusively shell casings. In addition, tin was a vital war materiel, the lack of which which likely accounted for much of the appearance deviations. I can usually pick 44-46 pennies from a pile due to a slight difference in the hue of the copper.
I would imagine due to wartime conditions they may not have had the same QC as pre and post-war metal refining. That, combined with the differing metals used in recycled shell casings (themselves probably not pure copper) would account for the differing appearance.
I wonder now whether the copper used in silver coinage (remember "silver coins" were 10% copper for the most part) was also from the same sources and if that made any difference in the silver coinage of the time.
Edited by n9jig
08/21/2023 4:28 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
938 Posts |
WOW !! Excellent topic and thread. Need more of this type of discussion. Thanks
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Moderator
United States
72105 Posts |
me too, I just learned something I didn't know just a few minutes ago...
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3932 Posts |
I've studied this topic quite a bit, and have observed over the years the physical evidence of inclusion of shellcases in the alloy mix during the "shellcase" period, so I'll provide a few notes.
First, how can you tell visibly if a coin has shellcase content? Shellcase coins have a unique and distinctive color scheme when toned. From what I've seen, the alloy was not mixed well, so the colors tend to bunch and streak. Many of the shellcase coins have deep red streaks, almost like "red woodgrain", but the most telltale color is bright blue. These vivid colors are not from the brass cases themselves, but from the small remnants of various metals in the primers.
Second, I've seen very few if any coins with shellcase toning from P or D mints. It may be that the planchets were mainly (only?) delivered to San Francisco, making the coins more of a symbolic exercise and keeping the P and D mints from having to deal with non-standard planchets. I'd love to hear from anyone who has seen P or D mint shellcase coins.
From a date perspective, I've seen very few from 1944-S. Perhaps they did not start this procedure until late in 1944. Many 1945-S coins show the toning, and the majority of 1946-S. I've also seen a few 1947-S, and even some 1949-S coins that show the telltale bright red and blue streaking, so there may have been some leftover planchets, or perhaps they continued making planchets far longer than has been published.
At one time I owned an original $20 mint bag of 1945-S Cents, and all of the coins showed the "red woodgrain" toning. It was quite a sight!
Edited by rmpsrpms
08/21/2023 6:43 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
938 Posts |
Only on CCF.. Excellent reference material.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4381 Posts |
Interesting on the 47 and 49 coins - I wonder if the mint just did/does a lousy job of rotating the stock of metal bars. It's not like they spoil, unlike say milk.
Certainly, the law allowed deviations from "standard", it didn't require them.
WRT the S/D/P differences: Unlike die-making, each mint did its own metallurgical operations, right? So what happened in one - happened in one.
-----Burton 50 year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973) Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, OnLine Coin Club Owned by four cats and a wife of 40 years (joined 1983) |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19676 Posts |
Quote:
At one time I owned an original $20 mint bag of 1945-S Cents, and all of the coins showed the "red woodgrain" toning. It was quite a sight! 
Lincoln Cent Lover!VERDI-CARE INVENTOR https://verdi.care/
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3037 Posts |
Very interesting topic, thanks for starting this, shathe. I'd done some digging on this a couple decades ago when I first started putting together a U.S. type set, but hadn't really thought much about it since then.
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Replies: 30 / Views: 4,265 |
Posted 08/20/2023 6:47 pm
