ORDNANCE VICTORY PENNIES

Many years ago, Fred sent me a scan of his E-bay purchase. It was a folder from the Tooele Ordnance Depot with a US cent minted from 1944 to 1946 that was minted from brass reclaimed from shell casings (copper added to the 70% copper, 30% zinc shell casing to make 95% copper and 5% zinc). It was labeled as a "victory penny, it's been to war". Of course, my reaction was "I want one"! I found one on E-bay and bought it. Just last week I was searching E-bay last week and I came across a card with a 1944S cent composed of copper from the shell casing reclaimed at the Tooele Ordnance Department (should be Depot). It was a souvenir from the Utah Fair Association. I have not found much about the Utah Fair Association after World War II so I cannot determine the date this card was released but I assume it was close to the end of World War II.

As a bonus the cent on the card has a straight clip 0930 to 1200. The blank for the coin was punched out partly over the edge of the sheet of metal so part of the blank is missing. Of course, someone could have cut off part of the cent with shears to imitate the error coin. This coin exhibits the Blakesley effect which verifies it is a mint error. When a blank is put through the upsetting mill to create a proto-rim there must [be] resistance on the entire edge of the blank for it to form a rim. The defect on the blank prevents resistance on the opposite side so the proto-rim is not formed opposite the defect on the blank. When the coin is struck the area opposite the defect has a wider and flatter rim with some weakness of the design elements. This can be seen on the coin.

For me this was a great find for my World War II coin collection. I now have a World War II coin that is an error as well as a second item related to the Tooele Ordnance Depot.

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