Thursday, August 9, 2012

Penny For Your Thoughts?

Well Readers, leave it to me to make a mess and start a manhunt!
As you all know, we are working on the Casablanca's Dining room, well its coming along and we are nearly ready to pour the concrete and set the support beams.  Friend Michael who helped dig the post holes suggested that "when we pour the concrete we should put a penny in it to commemorate the year.  I think this is a BRILLIANT idea, so I went to the bank and got two brand new shiny 2012 pennies (so I can lay one face up in the concrete and one face down.)
Then I, not being able to leave well enough alone thought "I should get two 1943 pennies to put in the concrete too!" as the main house was built in 1943. I also think its kind of neat to see how the back of a penny has changed in the last 69 years.
So I thought to myself "How hard can it possibly be to find a 1943 penny?"  Well as my LUCK would have it 1943 is the only year during World War Two that pennies were not minted in copper...
Public Law 815, temporarily suspended use of copper pennies to ration the metal for use in war time materials. As a result 1943 pennies were struck in steel and copper or zinc plated, which not only made them look like normal pennies but also made them magnetic.

A steel 1943 penny is worth anywhere from 15 Cents to 50 Cents. and Luck be danged I've yet to find one! I've been thought countless jars and all I come up with is 1942's and 1944's!

So this blog post is not only a history lesson but a cry for help! If any of you out there get a minuet would you please, please, PLEASE go through your pennies and see if you cant come up with a 1943 one?!  Haha I know my timing is limited as we have to have it when we pour the concrete but maybe just maybe there's one out there!

Please and thank you!

-Mick-

P.S. a quick way to check your penny pile is to spread them out flat and run a magnet over it. Since the pennies are made of steel they will be magnetic!

8 comments:

Vonlipi said...

I'll even look through mine because we get american pennies quite often here!

Good luck! :)

Sir Thrift-A-Lot said...

Dang! I had cleaned out a lot of my coin collection a couple years ago when we were extremely broke, but could have sworn I kept one or two of these - guess not!

I got through 100's of pennies a day at work, lots of American mixed in with these Canadian pennies (found a 1916 recently - among 1919's & many 1920's).

I'll keep my eye out..!

BTW, good idea. I've always wanted to do this to a public sidewalk.

Unknown said...

Thought I saw one on a vase I bought that had a lot of little junk things shoved into plaster of Paris. Yep. It's a 1943 steel penny. Just pried it off. It's yours!

Dana@Mid2Mod said...

What a great idea. And thanks for the interesting info about the 1943 pennies. I didn't know that. Glad someone has already found one for you. I'll look too, since you need a second one.

Witchcrafted Life said...

On the very, very unlikely chance I happen to come across one in my change up here in Canada, I will tuck it away for you immediately. Mind you, the task of finding one might get even harder around here soon, as Canada is going to phase out the use of pennies in this country in the near future, as the powers-the-be say it's not economical to produce them any more. Nevertheless, I'll be checking ever penny I encounter from here on out for you.

Have an awesome weekend!
♥ Jessica

MomWaldsPlace said...

My grandfather collected wheat pennies for decades. Mom inherited his collection. We should be able to find one for you.

My great grandfather put a 1945 in the sidewalk of the house he built in that year. As a child, and an adult, it was always a favorite thing to show people.

Jim said...

What a good idea Mick! I am sure you will find or will be given one soon, I hope! But just is case I will search through my mostly Canadian ones....which by the way are being discontinued next year here in Canada.

Sir Thrift-A-Lot said...

Mick, if you haven't gotten one yet, send me a message. I now found one.