Thanks to all who weighed in on my 1960-D "doubled die" that turned out to be a case of ejection doubling. I'm so impressed by the expertise I've encountered here that I would like to invite comment on two other mysterious pennies I've come across. The one at left (1997) weighs only 2.4 grams but is normal in diameter. It has a cloth-like pattern on the surface of both sides. The specimen at right (1967?) is only 17mm in diameter and weighs 2.6 grams. Notice that this coin has some overlapping of thin metal along the rim - a feature present on both sides. My first thought was that both coins were reduced by acid or intentional wear, but I notice that the zinc core is not visible as expected in the 1997 and I have seen examples of underweight cents with the metal overlap like the 1967 that were considered mint errors. Any comments would be appreciated.
The 1997 is an altered Copper Plated Zinc Planchet Cent. Not sure how it occurred but it is not any known Mint Error of any kind. (Probably a Dryer Coin as I will explain for the next Cent) The 196X Was damaged when it was caught in between the wall and the drum of an industrial dryer.
I'm not quite sure about the 1997, though. It has the raised rim but none of the dryer coins shown seem to have the cloth-like texture on both sides. Probably a related process.
