hi. i believe i have a 1958 D mint SILVER penny. any idea about what its worth?

i hope you can see the picture. i've never weighed it or anything like that it was a gift from my grandmother

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Welcome to Coin Talk!

As to your silver (colored) cent, you can make your own:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/126245..._a_gold_penny/

 

It looks to be plated/coated in something. We call this 'post mint damage' in the hobby and unless it's aesthetic to someone willing to pay for it, it's worth a cent

 

hmm thanks!
well i can't see why anyone would want to do that, and you know just throw it back for people to use again. haha my grandmothers said shes had it forever so i don't know how recent the shinanigins of self coating came along.

i know for a fact though that my grandmother has a real one from '43.

 

There are definitely many silver-colored pennies from 1943, although the metal is steel, not silver .

As for the 'shenanigan of self coating,' well... I believe Archimedes once unveiled a person coating a king's crown in gold and trying to pass it off as solid. Seems the perennial issue accompanying the refinement and machination of precious metal is the drive by some people to create fakes... economics tends to assume that humans act in self-interest and one of those interests is attaining economic profit. Sort of sad that such a field of study can predict many things accurately... all through its premise that humans are selfish

If there's money at the end of it it's been done

 

The 1943 cents were the war-time zinc-coated steel variety:

 

the op s actually looks painted to me. you can see it chipping away along the top right edge.

 

As late as the 1960's, textbooks and "science magic" books described how to turn a penny silver by rubbing it with mercury. If your grandmother had this for decades, it's quite possible that it's a TERRIBLE ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD THAT WILL TURN YOUR CHILDREN INTO TWELVE-EYED MUTANTS. (Or sit there, stable, as it has for the last forty-odd years.)

Sorry, I get a bit peeved at mercury hysteria. It's good that we've reduced its use and waste, but it's not plutonium.

 

We use to do this alot back in the 50's.... someone would bring a small container of liquid mercury to school and we would proceed to coat our coins (by rubbing the mercury into the coin using thumb and forefinger). We did this at lunch while eating. Take a bite of a sandwich... rub a little mercury... repeat. Boy, those coins sure did shine. As I recall, the "finish" became rather dull after a few days.

 

Here is one where you can see the coating coming off.

 

Wow Jim, you don't have any strange involountary twitches or extra arms from it or anything do you? Just kidding. It amaizes me how careless we were decades ago. I couldn't tell you how many flouresant bulbs I've broken over the years. Anyway, back to coins. That cent is probably plated with zinc, which is considerably safer.

 

At one of the World's Fairs, there was a mercury fountain that kids splashed and played in. Its probably for the best that we are a bit more careful with mercury now.