Any opinions on this '99-D penny?

I didn't know the U.S. mints had metal intended for other countries. So someone had to screw up and feed the wrong metal.

I should compare it with others of its year...it IS very shiny! I wonder if I should scan it at higher resolution, now that I figured out how...

Do you think mine may be that?

 

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It looks like the 2000-D cent is a combination error -- foreign planchet and a modest strike-through error. These foreign planchets come from the outside supplier, who makes planchets for other countries. The foreign planchets are the same composition as our cents -- copper-plated zinc. They are smaller and thinner, however. They come in at least two sizes/weights, indicating that two different planchets (and countries) are involved. Most weigh around 1.7 grams. The remainder weigh around 2 grams.

 

I'm thinking struck thru grease or something. Looks like the flat parts still show the original surface of the blank. If the flatness had been caused by after strike damage, I think there would have been much distortion of the design elements and some imprint of the object that flattened it, but this doesn't appear to show any of that, only flatness.

It seems a bit unusual to have the coin struck thru on both sides, but this is what it would look like.

Pretty neat piece, but I don't think there would be much of a premium for the error.

Or it could be an undersized planchet....

 

Higher resolution scans

 

My diagnosis remains unchanged. However, I see you also have a slight horizontal misalignment of the obverse die.

 

Nice error coin you have. Did you find it in change?

 

Yes, I did. That's how I got all my coins except for 4 nickels I spent $2 on. Just began collecting in '97. I like the old ones best...the ones that have obviously been around. I've found pennies and nickels from as far back as the 1930s, including a '43 steel cent.

Thanks to reading in here, I realized I need to always use a magnifying glass. I have a bunch of pennies & quarters waiting to be rolled that haven't been looked at that carefully. I watched dates/mint marks to complete my folders. I never actually looked for errors...the damaged coins I've found caught my eye while looking at their dates.

Using the glass last night, I found a 2003-D penny very similar to this '99-D with flat hair and the same kind of indication on the reverse. It's more centered. Will post photos after I get it scanned.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

Here's a thought from left field. It still bugs me that the reverse also shows weakness in the strike just opposite the flat hair and around the lettering. If the obverse die was filled with grease, then the reverse should still be fully struck. I'm only partially convinced that there was grease on the reverse, too. Judging from the depth of the rim around the flat struck hair, it looks like it was struck with plenty of pressure to strike up a normal planchet, but what if this is not a copper plated zinc planchet, but something harder that doesn't strike up as well. Can you weigh the coin? Does it weigh 2.5 grams? Is it magnetic?

 

It shows no sign of being magnetic, and as best I can see on the little hanging scale, it weighs 2.5 grams, falling half-way between 0 and 5 grams...

 

That is not a struck through grease coin---the ones on the e-bay links were but this coin is not...
I found a few coins that have been struck through grease and looked at some and to me this on it not the same---

Speedy

 

It looks different for unclear reasons that are unlikely to increase its value. That's more than I knew before!

Two days ago (the 16th), I posted photos of a very similar penny I found, but it's a 2003-D. It's also better-centered. Anyhow, I wondered if two cents of different years with the same flat hair and reverse marking and parts of letters poorly defined would give anyone additional theories, but it hasn't, so far.

I looked at that one coin on ebay that someone posted a link to. I don't have an educated enough eye to evaluate differences/similarities between the coins' photos. I did notice that it expired with zero bids and came back available for $10 or $15 less. Not exactly a hot commodity.

 

You're more then welcome onDvine.
I could get so lucky to get that in change.

 

The steel cent was the neatest. I was going through a drawer with a few YEARS worth of pocket change with the idea of rolling it and freeing up a drawer. I started noticing this 'n that, and was pretty much hooked. Now, I have to bite my tongue at other folks' homes to keep from asking to "look while we visit," if they have visible jars of pocket change.

 

Yes jars of change could hold many treasures. Especially if the same coins have been accumulating for years there will be lots more older unc. pennies for example. Here's something that may encourage you to ask in the future. About a month ago I was at a Vons and as I was leaving I checked the coin star machine's bad and foreign reject slot and there were 2 pennies. One was a 89D cent and the other was a penny from 1930 which is in just beautiful circulated shape. Now, I can go through as many as 25 rolls of pennies from banks and not find one weat cent and when I do most are from the 50s so I was just amazed that I found one in there that old that didnt register with the machine thank the Lord.

 

I know how you feel...you would love my ex mother in laws. She has a root celler with about 100 fruit jars ........all have nothing but wheat pennys floor to cieling. Makes me sick to think about all that sitting in the damp celler.

 

<<Imagining that situation:>> If I was given permission to look (being a relative--eventually I'd ask, if I stayed married to her child ), part of me would want to go through them all with my own hands and sort them out. The other part would be worried about spiders. I think I'd need an assistant!

 

Yep I thought the same thing....then I saw the look from my M-I-L...Yikes!
that was worse then spiders ...trust me.