Middle school science class; electroplating. Found a wheat penny like that in my till once. Worth 1¢.
I do also. Seems ever since the crash of 2008 there has been more and more BU coins being dumped into the system. Which of course is good for us roll searchers.
I'll be the first to admit a lack of knowledge here. I'm wondering what those that are convinced it is not a genuine error are seeing that convinces them of that. There are genuine unplated coins, both struck and blank, certified as errors and unquestionably they do exist.
I agree, I would not toss it w/o getting a pro inspection first. What we see in a pic here does not mean it is not something else.
I know. I'm just trying to show the OP that the weight can prove that it has been coated post-Mint. Chris
Plating irregularities occurred at the Mint. There are a lot of 1997-Ds for example that were inadvertently plated in brass. This coin could be a plating irregularity. I'm not saying it is that, but I'm not saying it's not.
There are cents plated in "brass" every year. It's just a matter of using the plating solution too long. It gets contaminated with some dissolved zinc with every batch of planchets plated. That zinc also plates out on the coin. Eventually there is enoigh zinc in the solution that the plating starts taking on a yellow color. And the plating is done by an outside contractor, they aren't really a mint error. Yes cents exist that missed the plating process, but when new they have the same cartwheel luster that a new copper plated cent has. Once the coin circulates a litte and the surface oxidizes or corrodes, it becomes impossible to tell if the coin started out as an unplated cent, or if it has been zinc plated, or had the copper plating stripped off.
