Here is the greatest anomaly in modern United States coinage history. During World War II, as the Americans advanced into Belgium, it was decided that the USA would create this first coin of "liberation". These two Francs coins of 1944 were minted in Philadelphia on the blanks of US zinc coated steel pennies of 1943 ( this metallic combination was used but once in our history, replacing the former copper pennies, as copper was desperately needed in the war effort ).