Steel war pennies, are they still found?

[Ism]

That question is brought up on the forum from time to time...
You can see the rim and under the right lighting, the bust of Abe. It's better than some modern zinc's I've found.
It's the second one I've found but the other one was so badly deteriorated it was without any identifying features. Both found with another coin, else I would not have dug either.
Maybe in dryer climates they are still found with the zinc coating, but around these parts most have become a stain of iron oxide in the earth.

 

[D&P-OR]

My wife & I have found a few in the arid desert areas we hunt--not many but a few.-----The (single) ones we found came out of dry sand in areas that gets very little rainfall & they actually wasn't in all that bad of condition.-----Even then, I'm sure we would have never found them except we were hunting in all metal.------I'm also sure most steelies that are still in the ground have long since disintegrated or have been passed over due to using disc settings.

 

[BillF]

I used to find them all the time years ago. Never knew that's what they were until the light went on. I still find one once in a while. There are no identifying marks, just a thin penny sized disk.

 

[Elton]

I have found intact penny size rust circles in my area.. Once you touch them they fall apart...It has been suggested to me by a hunting friend that it is rusted steel pennies..

 

[REVIER]

Most of the time you just find a penny sized rusty disc.
I just found one like that, so far gone I am not sure anything will save it.
Enough rust and they will come in as iron.

A few years ago I found 3 on one hunt in some Alabama soil, I don't expect that to ever happen again.
These were really crusty, came in higher than a dime which confused me at the time.
I threw them in my tumbler and luckily that clay filled soil coated them somewhat and protected them from rusting up completely.
After a bit of tumbling I pulled them out and then realized why I got that weird high signal on only these 3 cents and not the many copper cents I dug that day.