Brass Colored 2009 D Cent

I'm not much of a US collector, some though. I came across a 2009 D 1 Cent (1809 log cabin) that is really weird. It is so bright it must be proof. But its a D, so it can't be proof. But....the color is not bronze or copper, but brass. I know the pic does not show this, but it is really strange. I pulled out my 2009 mint set to compare but the color was not even close. I know with some foreign issues that sometimes the mixture of copper gets strange and makes strange colors, but this is really really far from the normal color. What might I have here?

 

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I have found a few of these in the last few boxes of cents I have searched. I also come across them in different years also, but all seem newer than 1986. The color is unique and very brass-like. I think the toning may be caused by a chemical reaction with either the salts and oils from a person's fingers or other environmental cause. It's almost like a stage between bright copper turning into Red-Brown.

I haven't saved any of them, just toss them in to be re-rolled and returned to a bank. Obviously, I don't think they have any added value, mostly because they are pretty common. I think I see one every 200-400 coins or so.

gary

 

I think it is definately something that happened post-mint. Most likely a chemical reaction from some type of acidic mixture coming in contact with it.

 

Just a guess, but I think they may all have been washed in laundry soap. Perhaps try leaving a new cent from a roll in your pants when they are being washed and watch what happens over the next few weeks along side another which was not washed. This may account for the frequency in which you find them.

 

In my high school chemistry class, we took cents and through some chemical reaction, I don't remember specifics, we turned them this color. We also put some in HCL+ and removed the copper coating all the way down to the zinc, which looked cool.

 

Iif you bake a zinc cent at a high temperature, the zinc diffuses into the copper cladding, turning it into bronze (copper-zinc alloy).

http://matse1.matse.illinois.edu/metals/g.html

 

Sometimes they do come from the mint that way as well. It is caused in the plating process. The zinc planchets are put in the plating soluion and plated with pure copper. But the solution is also slightly "corrosive" and some of the zinc dissolves from the planchets into the solution as well. As the solution is used and used and used the concentration of zinc in the solution increases and begins to plate onto the blanks along with the copper. The higher the percentage of zinc that plates with the copper the yellower or more brassy the plating will be.

 

Chlorine and algaecides in fountains (wishing wells) indoors and out can dramatically change the appearance of zincolns. The money tossed into these wells must be retrieved on a timely basis or the zinc coated cents are no longer usable. Yours was pulled out before it began to dissolve.

Spend it wisely...

Happy Collecting

 

My thought is that if you have a slight alloy irregularity in the planchet, when it is run through the annealing oven, such a color change could result.

 

Since the inception of the copper coated zinc core cents in 1982, the annealing ovens are no longer required prior to stamping. The blank planchets come from the manufacturer ready to go into the presses.

There is a possibility of cross contamination where a copper coated planchet could get into an oven but would be destined to be run through a press with none cent dies. Make sense?

Happy Collecting

 

A letter of explanation sent to Ken Potter from the U.S.
Mint concerning the Brass plating
on some Lincoln Cents.


http://koinpro.tripod.com/VarietiesUS/MintLetter.jpg