Lot 756
1943. Copper. PCGS graded EF-45 PQ. CAC. Only 10 to 15 examples estimated to have survived according to PCGS Pop Report, if indeed that many. This extraordinary mint error is so famous because of course in 1943, all cents were supposed to be made of a low carbon steel with a thin zinc plating, making them appear white rather than red or brown as seen in previous years on bronze cents. As is typically the case in large manufacturing facilities like the Philadelphia Mint, planchets are transported in large steel tubs or tote bins which have the ability to be poured into the planchet hopper for the coining press. As these tote bins age the seams along the walls and base crack and separate allowing a few planchets to become lodged in the tote bins, and this scenario most likely accounts for the 10 or examples of bronze planchets (from 1942) that slipped into the production of 1943 steel cents. A handful of bronze 1942 style planchets must have been stuck in a cracked seam of a particular tote bin and when new steepl planchets were poured into the bin, these bronze blank planchets became dislodged and fell into the planchet hopper with all the other steel planchets, which were then struck by the 1943 cent dies and entered circulation. This visual error was first reported by a youth named Don Lutes, Jr., then aged 16 having received the odd coin in change at his school cafeteria. Other reports followed through the decades of similar 1943 bronze cents but no examples were publically auctioned until 1974. Countless forgeries have been produced by copper plating steel 1943 cents, but these forgeries remain magnetic and are fairly easy to authenticate. For generations of collectors, the hunt for a 1943 copper cent remained as one of the most frustrating pursuits as these were so rare that few collectors have even seen, let alone discovered or owned, this historic mint error. Pop 1; 6 finer at PCGS. (PCGS # 82709) Estimate Value $100,000 - 125,000
|
| |
| Realized $193,875 |
