Will nickle stick to zinc in the plating process? I recall something about needing a copper layer first but that may be for chrome plating.
Lol - maybe someone was trying to hide the real thing 'in plain sight' with hopes of reversing the plating process and cashing out at a later date Reminds me of the wealthy guy who painted a 400 oz. gold bullion bar with black paint and used it as a doorstop in his home for many years - nobody knew
Usually I believe a replated cent would have been plated with zinc. I wonder if yours was plated in nickel? Maybe by someone who works in a chrome shop rechroming automotive items?
Steel cents are notorious for rust. Some companies have taken the ugly ones and either polished (reprocessed) or replated them to resell for a profit.
Nickel is magnetic. Our nickels are not magnetic because they are 75% copper and 25% nickel. But all those Canadian coins that are made out of nickel stick to a magnet. The steelie should weigh less (2.7 but they often run a little heavy 2.8 as mentioned). Even if it was a slightly thicker planchet it's not out of tolerance by much. And the reprocessing has decreased the value of the coin to 1 cent.
Why would anyone place mercury on a steel coin unless they wanted to hurt someone or even themselves for that matter? I can understand reprocessing but mercury dumb real dumb. Just my opinion.
Some of these Steelies are heavy before plating. Nickel plating can be quite thick. This is by far my most shiny war nickel
I save Canadian pennies and nickels. But have no idea what I’m missing. Think I need those 1920ish pennies. Drawing a blank on them nickels