Good Afternoon, does this steely look like it has been plated? The coin almost looks like a reverse proof in the daylight.
Many steel cents have had the original zinc plating stripped off and have been reprocessed with new zinc plating. It does hurt the collector value of the coin
Pretty much, yes.... I do not see any luster and that is a dead give away that the old steelie has been re-processed.
Sometime a '43 can look like that if it was whizzed clean with a Dremel tool. There is a lot of post plating dirt in the designs lettering. Check for plating on the edge.
Some companies decided the public would love to have one of the old "steel cent" but wanted to give them the "proof" look, so they actually reprocessed the coin, rather than just re-plate it. Looking closely at the third side (edge) of the coin, you can usually tell. "Additionally, the thin layer of zinc covering the coins’ surfaces only protected the obverse and reverse, not the edge." (from https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/6810/counterfeit-detection-september-2018/) Here is an explanation of reprocessing: https://www.collectons.com/shop/ite...incoln-Wheat-Cent-Reprocessed-Penny-for-Album More info: https://coinweek.com/counterfeits/counterfeit-detection-special-edition-reprocessed-steel-cents/
The planchets were not plated, the sheet was plated before the planchets were punched out. So, the edges never received plating.
