So my grandson was going through all these Lincoln cent's to separate the 1972's and ran across 2 Cents that looked strange. He handed them to me and I can't determine what is going on here. Two pics...a 1998 and a 2000. Both P mints. There's striations on both Cent's going from the about 7:00 to 1:00 position on both of them. I don't know what to think....or maybe I'm overthinking it! I don't think they are normal scratches but who knows...
1909 through mid 1982 Cents were minted on copper planchets. Mid 1982 through recent are minted on copper plated zinc planchets have all sorts of weird plating issues. What you are seeing is normal.
Plating issues, as stated, so NAV and yet another reason I don't even bother to look at the new cents.
The design was the same as the older cents, it had the Lincoln memorial. The last memorial reverse was 2008. In 2009 you had the Bicentennial of Lincoln so you had four different designs. The birth and early years, formative years, professional life and the presidency. That was a one year only design in 2009. In 2010 the shield reversed started. In 1982 you had both copper and copper plated zinc cents. From 1983 to date or the copper plated zinc cents.
