I have found a 1949 D Lincoln cent that looks like a steel cent, ie. silver rather than copper coloured. I haven't taken a magnet to it to test it, but judging by comparing weights with a 1943 steelie, it seems as heavy as a copper cent of that era. Anyone have any ideas as to what it is? Its almost as if someone did the opposite with it as I have heard that people had copper coated steel cents to fake a rarity. It doesn't appear in the red book or shane Anderson's "Lincoln Cent encyclopedia." TIA Bytthe by, this is my first post and I'm glad to have found this BB.
Probably a plated cent. When I was a kid I got a chemistry kit for Christmas and one of the experiments was to nickel plate copper coins. I hear this is a fairly common thing to do in school Chem. classes.
Welcome, bt. I believe Dockwalliper is right. "Silver" pennies and two headed coins are two of the most common ways of altering coins. Good luck, and don't be a stranger.
So, I can safely assume that this has little or no value? Oh well, still a nice conversation piece... what could it be plated with to account for the silver colour? Is it nickel? Just curious...
Yes, you can assume that it has no numismatic value. At least you can be 99.99% sure. There is a miniscule chance that it is a cent struck on a dime (or similar silver colored) planchet, but that is so rare as to be hardly worth mentioning. It could be plated with any number of silver colored metals. Nickel, steel, aluminum, zinc, even mercury are possibilities.
