What are we thinking there , Tammi ? I'm not sure what I'm looking at except that it appears a number was removed from the date. I see the " ghost " of an 8 or 3 or 5 ??? A 5 would make the most sense ???
I believe it is a real 1943 steel cent that was copper plated and then corroded. Commonly found back in the hey-day of discovery of copper real one.
wouldn't that have been highly illegal back in the day? This one is scattered with the remains of a coat and like I showed the rev. is in good shape so maybe not parking lot damage but PMD at its best
The ad is from 1963 Numismatic Scrapbook monthly magazine. Like some of current products ( Carr) as long as the underlying coin is real, you can manipulate it I guess. Jim
It is definitely not a 3. All the 3's from the 1930's were in a different font. The 3 was short and squatty. And it couldn't be an 8 since there are no wheat cents from the 1980's
Ergo , " A 5 would make the most sense ". However, I'm not seeing it clear enough to be sure of anything.
They still coat/plate the wazoo out of US coins and anything that they can sell to the public for a profit. here's one of *many*, *many* places that plate coins https://www.merrickmint.com/24k-gold-plated-coins.html you can still get plated steel cents (various platings available from various places) too .... Black RUTHENIUM 1943 Genuine Steel Wartime Wheat Penny U.S. Coin with 24K Clad Lincoln Portrait You just have to spend $10 for a 1 cent valuation.
For some reason the 4 on 1943 steel cents was a favorite place for the die to become clogged resulting in 19 3 cents. You see them fairly frequently. As for the rest of the coin I'm not seeing a copper coating. I suspect breaks in the zinc plating and the steel is developing an iron oxide layer. Red rust.
