Is it true that a 1943 wheat penny is worth about a million dollars?

Answer 1

No, it's not true. At best the value is overrated; at worst, there's one important piece of information missing. 1943 was a unique year for making cents. The USA needed as many raw materials as possible to fight World War II. Copper was an invaluable material in the war effort. Congress and/or the President decided to change the materials used to make cents; instead of the copper-based alloy used previously, cents were made out of zinc-coated steel. This gave them a unique look, of course. It also caused quite a few problems, as the zinc coating turned out to be somewhat incompatible with steel, but that's another story. By 1944, the Mint was instructed to revert to the previously used copper-heavy alloy. Blank coins were held in giant bins. Often blank coins from a previous use of a bin would still be in the bin for the next run. In this case, a bin used to mint 1942 cents still had a few blank copper cents in them. As a result, very few 1943 copper cents were struck. '''These''' coins can be worth tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars ... but not a million. When people found out about the rarity of the 1943 copper cents, they tried to beat the system. Two ways this was done was to copper-plate a standard 1943 cent, and to alter a 1948 cent to look like a 1943 cent. Today, about 80 to 90 certified 1943 copper cents have been found; these are believed to be the only ones that were actually minted and survive to this day. If you have a "regular looking" 1943 cent, chances are it's one of the forgeries. Since even a plated 1943 cent will be attracted to a magnet, testing for a plated 1943 steel cent is easy. Spotting an altered 1948 cent, however, is more difficult; you have to know what to look for. A coin dealer specializing in error coins should be able to do this. No. '43 wheat pennies vary in value from 30 to 70 cents.