https://www.reddit.com/r/coins/comments/4d48lh/im_a_regular_on_rcoins_and_rcrh_i_think_i_just/ Thoughts?
Mint says at least 40 are known ... https://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/fun_facts/?action=fun_facts2a
Those are the Philadelphia cents. There's one known from Denver, and five from San Francisco. I'm not exactly calling a random Reddit thread "conclusive news," especially when the poster insists on waiting until the June Long Beach show when he's obviously close enough to handcarry it to PCGS or some of the most respected dealers in the country in the same city. Heck, all he's gotta do is walk into a "We Buy Gold" place and have them XRF the coin.
There are several articles on accuracy -mol. mass- beam intensity-depth relationships from XRF on the net that indicate low powered handheld units, at the best ,for a heavy element such as gold, might just be the surface or maybe a few to 100s micrometers of depth. For copper it is less by a large factor, so I would consider a higher intensity lab setup ( about $100 per test) to compare results from a 1942 cent and a 'copper 43 type cent' for best argumentation, or drill a hole into it half way
Well, core sampling works for geologists. While XRF admittedly might not penetrate decent plating, it can at least identify that potential plating as having the same composition as the actual planchet it's proposed to be. Not to mention, it's rather a difficult alloy to "plate" in the first place.
