Oh the humanity! What could possibly have inspired this desecration? This is probably the worst looking cent I've seen that's still recognizable as an entire cent. I'm not sure if it was sandblasted, jack-hammered or whatever else but this cent has seen more prosperous days. I think that's an outline of a Memorial barely visible on the reverse, but this monstrosity was found in a pile of IHC and wheat cents dating from 1886 - 1958. I feel that it deserves special recognition for the abuse it suffered. If it wasn't a Memorial cent, then hopefully it wasn't a 1909-s or a 1955 dbl die. We will likely never know, because you can't unboil an egg, as they say.
If it were a Zincoln it would've collapsed in the first five minutes of that treatment, and then poisoned a couple of small critters for spite. I think "unbeat an egg" is a better metaphor here...? Trying to find something positive in the situation, maybe this is a case where a vice job would improve the coin?
Hey , if that coin gets out into the public arena , we'll be seeing pix of it for weeks. Just imagine what young mag would do with this.
Yeah, that's obviously a copper. If it were a zinc cent it'd be lookin' like rice, with white all over it.
No, because lowball Registry collectors shoot for the PO01 grade without damage. Only natural wear. That coin is so bad it's actually kind of cool looking, in a weird way.
Yes, "lowball" is probably also a generous term for this cent. I can understand the "lowball" qualification of "without damage" because it would be pretty easy to just create or mutilate other coins like this one, whereas natural wear has its own look and feel that is much harder, if not impossible, to manufacture effectively. The coin above came from a lot that was apparently owned by people with access to machine tooling, such as lathes and bandsaws, so they apparently had some fun with these. I wonder if it was the result of a carving experiment gone wrong or maybe just a reveling in the joy of harmless mutilation? In any case, the most recent coin in the lot dated to 1958. After more searching I also found a wheat cent that had the "In God We Trust," "Liberty" and "E Pluribus Unum" removed entirely, along with one number from the date. The alteration markings were very obvious and would fool no one. Someone was apparently having fun seeing what they could accomplish with certain tools. Given what I know of the source my best guess is that all this fun happened sometime in the early 1960s when wheat pennies were probably still the norm and Memorial cents were the new novelty. At that point in time destroying the wheaties may have made more sense.
