It also takes money to lose money. Spend a bit of time with Google, and see if you can come up with a silver coin that weighs 4.3 grams and is small enough to fit into a cent collar. Dimes, the largest US silver coins whose planchets would fit, weighed 2.5 grams.
And have it returned to you in a body bag ungraded due to the damage. Try taking it to your local coin shop first.
There is no chance that is silver. It looks exactly like a normal copper nickel cent that has been badly corroded and cleaned should look. Have it checked if you like, but at least come back after and admit we were all right!
My opinion is 1864 transitional year for penny if copper should be 4.7 or 3.1 might be one of first experimental when Trying to dial in metal content if any of you have one that weights 4.3 gladly would pay a buck for it as for grading you would be crazy not to have it looked at.
The nominal weight of a copper nickel cent is 4.67 gms. Assuming your 0.1 gm resolution scale has been recently calibrated (you do this regularly, right?), your coin could weigh between 4.25 - 4.35 gms which makes it 6.9%-9.0% light. (if your scale has poor accuracy or needs calibration, then these numbers are worthless). Now it is apparent that your coin suffered significant corrosion damage. There is a lot of pitting and weak details that indicate metal is missing. Could this account for the lighter weight? Or did you happen to find an undocumented transition piece that has suffered corrosion or some other damage that resulted in the abnormal appearance? The 14th century philosopher and Franciscan Monk, William of Ockham once said that simplest explanation is usually the correct explanation. BTW: The Newman Numismatic Portal has scanned a number of mid-19th century documents from the US Mint. Since you are claiming that the coin may be something rare and different, you may be able to find some evidence to back up your 1864 transitional weight/composition planchet theory. A little evidence pointing in that direction can go a long way. However, I’ll place my bet on William of Ockham.
Not even enough to cover ebay's listing fee, then you'll give the rest to PayPal to receive any buyer's payment. Oh, and then there's the postage to send it out.
Uh... I think you’ve got the wrong idea here. Shredding money will not result in more money. You’re shredding money here.
Known IH cent errors of off metal or wrong planchet are extremely rare. Of the few known examples include: 1906 struck on Quarter Gold Eagle planchet. 1872 struck on Nickel Three-Cent planchet. 1877 struck on Venezuelan Centavo planchet. 1909 struck over a 1906 Barber Dime. 1859 struck over 1857 Half Dime. None listed for 1864. Good luck.
It's not a good practice to pay tuition for attending the school of hard knocks. Think about it. For the price it will cost you to send it in only be told the same thing as you have been told here, you could probably have yourself a nice CN 1864.