While steel cents lasted for just one year, the Mint produced shell case cents from 1944 to 1946. This mixture restored the penny’s traditional reddish brown appearance. By using metal from recycled shell casings, the Mint was able to produce pennies with a composition of 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc. In response, the Mint changed the composition of pennies again in 1944. The new coins confused vending machines because of their lighter weight, and people occasionally mistook steel cents for dimes because of their color. The resulting steel cents, produced exclusively in 1943, saved enough copper to manufacture 1.25 million artillery shells.ĭespite the valuable contribution of steel cents, Americans were not pleased by the change from brown to silver-colored pennies. The Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco mints churned out nearly 1.1 billion steel cents and, in doing so, saved more than 40,000 pounds of tin for the war effort. After experimenting with materials ranging from tempered glass to plastic, the Mint decided to change the composition of one cent coins from 95 percent copper, 4 percent zinc, and 1 percent tin to steel with a thin coating of zinc to prevent rusting. In response, Congress passed a bill in December 1942 that authorized the US Mint to explore the use of alternative materials for pennies in an effort to conserve thousands of pounds of industrial metals for the war effort. Even the money in Americans’ pockets was redesigned to help win the war.Īs the United States accelerated production of everything from planes and ships to tanks and artillery shells after it entered the war in December 1941, the nation faced critical shortages of copper, zinc, and tin. The US government instituted rationing of commodities such as sugar, meat, gasoline, tires, and paper. Although the continental United States was spared destruction during the conflict, the wartime transformation of the US economy wrought many changes in Americans’ daily lives. World War II was a global conflict that required belligerent nations to fully mobilize their economies in order to support their armed forces. Courtesy National Museum of American History. ![]() Top Image: The US Mint produced steel cents in 1943 to save copper for the war effort.
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