Yes, you are right.

The 1943 silver colored penny is a wartime issue made of steel, and coated with zinc. During World War II, copper was so badly needed for the war effort (to make shell casings) that the U.S. penny was made out of steel that year, which is why most 1943 pennies are silver colored.

There are a few error coins known from 1943, where the penny was accidently struck in copper. These are extremely rare, but if you think you might have a 1943 copper penny here's how to find out if your 1943 copper penny is genuine.

you know too much.

But thanx. My step-mom got me into the whole coin thing, and we also have a coin store around here. She said that she once found a penny with the head upside down. If that makes sense. I'm not sure if its bs or not.

And, if you find a copper 1943 penny, you are in for a lot of money.

Test it with a strong magnet before getting too excited. Some people have been known to electroplate steel pennies to try and sell them as the rare copper ones.

Yeah, that's why I only go for the steel ones, I don't want to get ripped, because they're extremely rare.

Just carry a strong magnet with you and you won't be (if you remember to use it ;-)

I will, I doubt that any of these coins are fake at all though seeing as this trunk has been untouched for the past 40 some years

Well, if you find a 1943 copper penny, it still doesn't hurt to run a magnet over it :-)

will do ill look through em again tonight, this time i might wear some rubber gloves because these pennies are nasty, i get the green stuff on my hands and i smell like metal

Those are pretty rare, mercury dimes are pretty pricey too (if in good condition). You should keep those, sell them to a coin store, give them to me, or give them to Brennn10. ;-) Just kidding.

Yep they were steel, and apparently coated with a thin layer of zinc.

http://www.usmintquarters.com/steelcents.htm

I have a giant trunk filled with old pennies a bunch of them are stuck together with like green rusty copper stuff. But there are probably around like 5000 pennies/ old coins ill see if i can find anything else interesting

Dang, lucky. _{I am jealous.}

the ferric chloride will dissolve the zinc as well. Since the copper is only 3 or 4% anyway, you probably don't need to get rid of it (but I'm not sure what "negative x" means here.) All you have to do is figure out how to powder your pennies. I believe some "moss killer" herbicides contain a large percentage of metallic zinc; It might be worth looking into. Zinc "sacrificial anodes" can be found in boating stores, and several eBay sellers are selling assorted types of powdered zinc...

Zinc melts at a fairly low temperature (787.15 ^oF with a match flame around 800 ^o F) so I would think the copper (melting point of copper at 1,984.32 ^oF), though small, has some significant effect on the melting point. A place to take note of in this respect....

I am not sure how "pure" the zinc is to be honest. An alloy always acts a bit differently then the pure metal . If you use a chemical method to do this, just be careful. Most of the methods are toxic and produce toxic fumes. A small crucible and a small blast furnace would melt both metals and if you had enough of the 2 (quite a few pennies), you would be able to then lower the temp to the point of the zinc remaining molten and the copper would either sink or float (if the specific gravity is less, it should float).