Just found this 1982 penny while roll searching. What would you call this? I've compared it to a regular 1982 copper cent and a 1943 steelie. Thanks for any and all help
Unfortunately, probably a cent with the thin copper layer dissolved off. This can be done by using chemicals, leaving the inside zinc core. A chemistry experiment.
how do i find out for sure? can i weigh it? as you can see on the reverse there are some pretty deep scratches and no zinc is appearing anywhere on the coin. thanks for your help
2.5 grams is what a zinc copper cent should weigh (opposed to copper 3.1 grams). So this cent you have may weigh slightly less than 2.5 grams.
i just weighed it.. it weighs 2.47 grams. i also weighed a copper 1982, it weighed 3.09 grams and a zinc 1982 and it weighed 2.51 grams. then i weighed the 1943 steelie which weighed 2.69 grams.
the whole coin looks like zinc?? lol.. well i guess my 1943 steelie must be zinc too then! lol.. ????
Well I guess my 1982 isn't a winner of any sort just probably part of some chemistry class experiment or bored persons sand blasting project. Who knows... but the moment was really awesome when I found it. At first I thought it was a 1943 until I noticed the date and no wheat on the back. Then I thought missing clad? Then I did some research to see if anybodyelse found one and so they have but all were told they were part of a chemistry class experiment. My thoughts?? well, I guess the chemistry class must have opened a roll of 1982's and passed them around lol.. now we're finding them one by one
It can't really be a 'unclad' or 'missing clad' since they were plated from the mint. Clad coins are the dime and quarter for an example.
Pretty much lol ...1982 was the first year that con artists had a chance to try and fool people into believing a (non-1943) cent was steel. They saw an opportunity to make money off of people. But once most of the public caught on it was pointless for them to keep creating these, so 1982 is the "big year" for coins concerning this type of con and the reason there are less in later years.
Also when the plated zinc cents first came out and the first REAL non-plated ones appeared they were selling for a couple hundred dollars. That encouraged a lot of scam artists to start trying to unplate the Zincolns. The result was a lot of cents like the OP coin.
