Coinsandcanada.com

he found this lastnight and end up giving the coin to me

1942

Yes, zinc-coated steel cents struck during the war. Copper was being used for military applications, including ammo.

You’re quite rare to find in the states. It’s the only coin that’s magnetic and so it gets caught up on the magnetic strip that they put in the coin counters. After literally looking through millions of US cents i’ve may be only found two over the years.It’s really not worth much but people sure love when they get one. Sometimes I’ll hand them out in the till just to see the reaction.

You call it a 1942, are you sure that it is not a 1943, that is the only that zinc plated steel cents were issued.
I can't tell by you photo what the last number is.

Yeah uts 1943 the 3 looked like a 2