I don't know how you can have the two coins side by side in a picture like that and not see that the damaged one is thinner. Some of us have seen these things hundreds of times before.
Slightly thinner because it's missing the clad outer shell. (UNCLAD).I will have it checked and get back to you. Not saying your wrong. Thanks for the input.
I find it hard to believe that putting a penny between a leather belt and useing a HAMMER on it would increase the size to a nickle with slight thinning that could be the result of being unclad. Also wouldn't it be unsymetrical. This coin is perfecty round and I would think it would have to be "Much" thinner to be the size of a nickle. I understand what you are saying, and I will try it, if I can find a belt I don't need. Thanks for your thoughts.
The leather conforms to the surface of the coin and spreads the inpact of the blow to the ENTIRE surface evenly. That is why the high areas are not flattened. There is no clad outer shell, the cent is plated not clad and the thickness of the plating layer is only .002 inches removing the plaing woul only change the thickness of the coin by about the thickness of a human hair. The edge picture clearly show more of a change than that, and you would not have to reduce the thickness very much to get the diameter that your coin has.
Just got back from a reputable coin dealer who reiterated what the general consensus was that this coin was somehow altered after it left the Mint. Of course that was my feeling all along.
Ya hey I just pulled a few hundred grey pennies like that from the scene of a housefire. Some are expanded from the heat, all are grey and reained details. I was hoping to find some melted together but the heat must have not been enough for that. It looks like there is some sort of something stuck on the field behind Lincolns head on your coin, also similar to those I pulled. Yep, the more I look the more I think that's what that is. I'll be putting all mine out in circ. Soon. - Andy
i had to post on here... i always collect any odd coins i find at work, sell the silver ones, and research values of anything else. i have two of these, and they are both the same year, 1989. my first thought was that it was tin, per my coworkers comment, but it doesnt seem to be. also, the tin pennies were made during the great depression, i believe, definitely not in 1989. there must be something to these pennies besides the acid theory. it is unlikely that two coins would pop up in ohio, and one in maryland, from the same year, that had randomly been dropped in acid. Though i notice, his coin looks on the edges like it has been squashed, and the edges protrude out. the coins i have are not like that.
Throw it in a coin holder and wait till someone else has one authenticated.. could be a foreign planchet intended for a foreign country.
Oh man, I love these threads. People holding out against all evidence that what they have is worth a fortune. Posting pictures would be very helpful. Why must there be something other then acid? I would argue that although 'it is unlikely that two coins would pop up in ohio, and one in maryland, from the same year, that had randomly been dropped in acid', it is many orders of magnitude more unlikely that two genuine mint error coins would do the same.
Because it's a science experiment performed in high schools (maybe even middle schools) around the country... On a side note, this thread is OLD!!
Does anyone have any hard evidence proving when this school experiment started and when they stopped doing it?
How could anyone prove "when they stopped doing it"? As soon as you show someone was the last one to do the experiment someone else will do it. Plus I don't think there is a central clearinghouse where high school science teachers report their experiments with coins.