First, welcome to the forum. Second: HUH? I see the color, but perhaps a closeup of just the '09 would help.
Hello lldiemaster, I do not know if your coin is valuable without seeing it in hand. Sodium Hydroxide & Zinc dust can be heated with a cent to plate Zinc onto the cent. If you torch the zinc coating, then it melts with the copper (zinc + copper = brass) making a brass colored cent. Here is a video describing the process. http://www.metacafe.com/watch/126245..._a_gold_penny/ Very best regards, collect89 P.S. I previously posted a brass colored specimen on CT & received this link from another CT member. P.P.S. Draino contains Sodium Hydroxide & the zinc source could be as simple as Zinc coated nails.
The coin is innocent until proven guilty Perhaps you could weigh your coin & see how it compares to a normal 1909 cent. Also measure its diameter as compared to a normal 1909.
back in the stone age as my son would say I know back in 1959 there was an add in a coin paper or a new paper that was selling 1909VDB Gold plated & 1959 Silver plated for the 50th anniversary . as a young man I almost payed $1.95 for the set.until my uncle said you nuts kid that set is a scam. but I suspect it maybe lab rat coin
I would need a better pic before I could begin to say anything about any of those coins. It is fairly common to have early range in color from nearly yellow to deep red probably due to the storage, but alloy variations are also common from that era.
IMO cleaned, but with something not normally used. Result: the unusual greenish surfaces. The spots are minor compared to the real problem.
I would say that coin was completely covered with PVC at one time and then somebody tried to clean it off. They did not do a very good job. It needs to be removed.
Collect89 is probably correct. We did this trick in 8th grade science class. I still have my penny twenty years later.
