1943 Lincoln Steel Cent - Philadelphia - NGC MS66

World War II was easily the largest armed conflict in the history of the United States, and arguably the entire world. Every nation all over the world faced a shortage of war-time material, and the United States of America was no exception. The two largest shortages we faced were of copper and nickel, two materials integral to the production of our cent and five cent denominations...in response to this, the United States Mint decided to change their composition for the duration of the War. The non-copper cents were minted for just one year in 1943 became well-known among collectors as the Lincoln Steel Cents.

We spent the last year searching the nation and got our hands on a small group of the rarest issued Steel Cents from 1943: the Philadelphia mintage! Not only are these the rarest Steel Cents, but each of our WWII relics are in Super Gem NGC MS66 condition!

In 1943, the United States was still fighting WWII and was facing a serious shortage of copper - a material that was critical to the United States War effort. To reduce the use of copper, the Treasury Department resorted to using zinc-coated steel to make our Lincoln Cents for the year 1943. This was a very special one year only emergency coin...and as a result it is the first and only steel coin in U.S. history. These special Steel Cents were produced at all three major United States Mints: Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco.

When it comes to Steel Cents, the Philadelphia Mint issues are the coins to own, but don't just take our word for it, the numbers speak for themselves! In 1943 the Philadelphia Mint produced over 84,628,670 Steel Cents compared to the combined 409,210,000 from San Francisco and Denver, which makes each Philadelphia Mint Steel Cent almost 5 times rarer than their D and S counterparts!

But it gets even better! NGC has confirmed that only 9,626 of these Philadelphia Steel Cents exist in MS66 condition or better, which means that only 1 in every 8,792 P Mint Steel Cents exist in this grade!

Another reason these coins are so rare is in large part due to the tarnishing and rusting that began to take place just a few months of use! In response to this deterioration, the U.S. Treasury issued a recall after the war ended and destroyed well over 162 million total Steel Cents! This one-two punch of widespread tarnishing and governmental destruction has led to very few pieces surviving in collector's quality condition...making these STUNNING NGC MS66 condition Steel Cents a true collecting rarity!