How to tell if this is a real zinc cent?

I have just unexpectedly come into possession of one of these zinc-looking cents. What's the consensus on them? I've found some references to them, and it seems that some are definitely real,but many are de-plated for fraudulent reasons. Is there a way to tell?

 

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Certainly zinc
Any other questions?

 

How exactly?

 

All those little black and green spots have already eaten into the zinc on this Cent.

 

1) take coin out of holder.

2) take picture

 

I have unexpectedly come into possession of...
found CRH
I may have paid too much

 

If you paid more than a cent, yes you did. Zincolns are an insult to great 'Ol Abe in my opinion. Good luck

 

A genuine unplated planchet (and they do occur) will look like a normal coin, but well struck and no copper.

An acid-treated (to remove the copper) coin will have either tiny bits of copper left in the protected corners or will have thinner devices because the acid eats some of the zinc after the copper is gone.

See how thin the letters are on @Heavymetal 's coin. I'm calling that acid...

 

At least give him back one of the Ls - ZLincoln

 

It was part of a mixed lot of coins which had some coins I was interested in. The lot wasn't itemized, and, looking at the picture, I was wondering what the 1995-d coin was - that part of the pic wasn't very clear.

 

Sadly, the cover of the air-tite was off when I took the pics. (As soon as I got it I put it in the air-tite because I know how badly zinc oxidizes) I am working through the "new-guy-learning-to-take-decent-pictures" thing.

 

Anything help with those spots? I've put it in an air-tite to minimize further damage. (It was in a clear flip before.)

 

Well, then maybe this really IS a mint error. It looks normal, no eaten up spots, no bits of copper that I can see. It looks better in hand than in these pics.

 

A Zincoln without the copper plating will have full mint luster. An altered coin will not

 

You can take a zinc cent and lay it between a cloth and hit it with a hammer a few times and the copper will fall off. Usually those cents are just a slightly larger diameter due to being smacked with a hammer. Lay another cent on top of that one and it will tell the tale.

 

Weight

 

Perhaps the hammer caused the bottom of “ATES oF” to be flattened at the top of the reverse of the OP’s coin.

 

That is very commonly seen on Memorial cents and is a striking problem caused by the fact that those letters are opposite the lower part of Lincoln's bust which uses up all the available metal. The metal would rather flow into that big open void in the obv die than into the tight spaces of the lettering on the rev die.

The OP coin has a dead flat surface appearance with no luster. But it isn't dark and rough. I suspect it has been plated post mint and is NOT struck on a non-plated planchet.

 

Are you suggesting that another layer of zinc was plated on top of the copper plating on top of a zinc planchet? Intriguing! But I finally located my scale and the coin is 2.4g. The same scale shows post 1983 cents as 2.5 g, as expected. So it seems likely that this is just the planchet with nothing plated on top of it.

 

You don't own a scale able to differentiate 8 microns of plating. Especially with the tolerance is plus minus 0.13 g.