Gold penny can someone tell me what this is?

I would like to learn more about this or at least what it's worth

 

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https://www.sciencecompany.com/Turn-Copper-Pennies-Into-Silver-and-Gold-Pennies.aspx

 

That's disappointing

 

You have to kiss many frogs . . .

 

Hey it's worth something... ONE CENT!

 

That's a good poll, very informative. Yes has it so far.

 

I like to keep it interesting

 

A free ticket to heaven or something along the lines

 

Well there is now! My penny isn't even gold

 

In all seriousness it may be an improperly mixed alloy. I do remember finding one of similar color in a mint sewn bag. Not sure how that could be authenticated though.

 

I voted yes.

 

In 1988, pennies were plated with 100% copper. No alloy involved.

 

In 1983 there were cents that got plated with brass instead of copper due to zinc bleeding into the copper, that's what I was referring to. Not sure if later dates were affected?

 

The problem is that in order to determine if the copper plating is zinc rich, you need to use some expensive analytical equipment like XRF or EDS in an SEM. Further complicating things is that the Xray or electron beam penetrates a little below the surface. Normally this wouldn't be a problem except that the copper plating is thin and there is zinc directly under the copper. So you would have to test a number of normal coins to see how the specific machine interacts with the zinc below the copper and come up with statistically significant baseline (no comments from any statisticians that might out there. You guys are basically evil anyway ). I'm not sure what these tests cost no, but a rough guess is $100/run.

Can you tell the difference by color? Probably, but since copper is so reactive, you probably can see similar colors on normally plated cents as well. I have a couple 83's that I'm certain are Brass plated, but I don't expect to get a premium for them because I have no way to prove it.

BTW: I think the OP's cent is gold plated.

 

Why gold plate a penny though haha

 

To sell in sets. Used to see this stuff in the back of magazines and the Sunday newspaper inserts, especially for State Quarters. The plating is very thin and not worth much, and the prices were high.

Yours could be gold plated or brass plated (simple HS chem lab experiment) or even some sort of environmental damage, but regardless, it happened after it left the mint so it's not an error and isn't worth anything beyond face value.