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13 Posts |
 Posted - 05/04/2008 : 11:04:11
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So I found something hard to explain the other day. Its a 1973 Penny, however it is silver in color. I first thought it was a fake. But its real metal, not Aluminum though. And if it is a fake it is the most amazing fake ever. There is a very small area of copper showing on the wear spot where lincolns ear meets his hair. There is however no copper showing anywhere else, no seams, no other distinguishing marks.
What could this be? A gross error at the mint? Some guy at a chome plater with too much time on his hands? I read that in the 73-74 time period there was some experimentation with different penny composition, but I doubt anything like that could make it into circulation. And if it did how the hell has it lasted in circulation for 40 years, its kind of blatantly obvious.
All I have is questions, anybody got some answers/ideas/etc?
I will try to post some pics tommorrow.
Erik
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Another long day in the copper mines |
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TenBears
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1021 Posts |
Posted - 05/04/2008 : 11:15:42
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| There is no reference to what you describe in my 2007 Red Book. |
"Rich," the Old Man said dreamily, "is not baying after what you can't have. Rich is having the time to do what you want to do. Rich is a little whiskey to drink and some food to eat and a roof over your head and a fish pole and a boat and a gun and a dollar for a box of shells. Rich is not owing any money to anybody, and not spending what you haven't got." Robert Ruark
there are too wild Indians...
there are too wild Indians...
there are too wild Indians...-----still taunted
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Tourney64
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1035 Posts |
Posted - 05/04/2008 : 11:19:05
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Weigh it. If it is significantly different than 3.11 grams, then you definitely have something, especially if it it lighter. There were aluminum pennies minted but never relased to the public in 1974. All but a few were melted.
You must be logged in to see this link.
Check if it reacts to a magnet. If it does, then you have something. Check the edge of the coin do you see a layer in the middle?
Hope this helps.
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Edited by - Tourney64 on 05/04/2008 11:19:37 |
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26 Posts |
Posted - 05/04/2008 : 12:18:25
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| Be careful touching it because it might be plated with mercury. I've read somewhere that schools used to plate cents with mercury back in the 70's for science. |
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nckt
Penny Collector Member
USA
304 Posts |
Posted - 05/04/2008 : 17:02:21
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| I found a coin like that! i thought it was a steel penny, but then i looked at the date, tell me if what you find out. |
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the_cent_guy
Penny Pincher Member
USA
114 Posts |
Posted - 05/04/2008 : 18:49:52
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| I think they're just painted silver, I've came across a few like that and yellow ones also.. |
"It's funny,you know me and the boys are talking about what to do with all this extra coin. And I was like.. I'm renting a clown.. Ha, and I did! Bobo here.. And uh.. I really underestimated the creepiness.."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdfvWAp5GUw
Copper Cents For Sale:
http://tinyurl.com/5ec4mp |
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Metalophile
Penny Collector Member
USA
320 Posts |
Posted - 05/05/2008 : 13:04:28
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| When I was a teen ager I experimented with copper and silver plating. I silver plated a few pennies just by exposing them to silver nitrate solution. Copper, being more reactive than silver gets oxidized, and silver reduced to metallic silver on the surface of the penny. The silver coating made this way is very thin. |
Metalophile |
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jpf231
Penny Collector Member
USA
340 Posts |
Posted - 05/05/2008 : 13:23:00
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| I have found two grey 1988 zincolns that never got the copper plating - can't be worth very much. |
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13 Posts |
Posted - 05/05/2008 : 15:52:20
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| Its not painted, for sure. No magnet reaction. I don't know where to find a scale that is real accurate in grams. |
Another long day in the copper mines |
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swusc
Penny Hoarding Member
USA
553 Posts |
Posted - 05/05/2008 : 16:06:19
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quote:
Originally posted by ejszyper
Its not painted, for sure. No magnet reaction. I don't know where to find a scale that is real accurate in grams.
Do you have a scan? I "burned" a penny with, i think, nitrogen oxide in high school chemsitry lab. It looks silverish now, but I still have it. The reaction makes a poisonous gas, so my teacher wasn't happy with me. I would have gotten in a lot of trouble now, I am sure.
-SWUSC |
`Everybody is ignorant. Only on different subjects.' Will Rogers
"This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the "hidden" confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard." Alan Greenspan, 1966. |
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NotABigDeal
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
3890 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2008 : 06:24:39
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Interesting....
Deal |
Live free or die.
Plain and simple.
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your council or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
- Samuel Adams |
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El Dee
Penny Hoarding Member
USA
547 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2008 : 10:58:18
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Looks like it's plated to me. It looks like the ear has worn through.
I'd bet somebody at a plating shop dipped it in the tank to test the solution, or to have a novelty. |
Trust the government? Ask an Indian. |
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Mystery coin
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