In 1943 as copper and nickel were needed by allies of the war, almost all circulating pennies were made from zinc-coated steel. But in one of the most valuable errors in coin history, some pennies ...

I spent much of my childhood looking for the famous 1943 steel penny. This was when they were using other metals for war production, so for one year they actually made steel pennies. I never found ...

Largely because it was made of bronze rather than the zinc-coated steel the U.S. was using at the time amidst the war efforts. A similar “problem-free” 1943 penny went for $264,000 at auction ...