I have had this penny for about 4 years and finally pulled out my collection. It is strange because the bottom of the penny is silver, which goes all the way through to the back. no copper even in the side. on the rear of the coin it has in silver the words "ed states of" with a torch or a star in the word states. It has a slash that looks like it was cut a little under lincoln's coat to be the size a dime would be. But it is only a small part of the penny. the rest of the penny is normalish. What kind of error could this be? I tried looking this up and I can't place it.
Its hard to tell from the pics, but to me it looks like a partly unplated planchet error. As cents are struck on zinc planchets with a thin coat of copper it is possible this one is just missing part of its copper. From what I've seen, total unplated is more common than partially unplated. From the description it sounds like there may be some form of overstrike or brockage too. Really nice piece.
Missing copper plating. As bl stated the core of the coin is zinc so the silver-looking metal you are seeing is zinc. That's a pretty cool error find.
The copper plating on US cents is too thin for the thickness (or weight) differential to be discerned without very sensitive laboratory measuring equipment.
Does the silver part have a smooth texture like the rest of the coin or is it grainy/rough? Second, You mentioned a torch on the silver part of the coin, do you mean that it looks like the torch on a dime? And can you get better pictures that will let us see this detail? thanks
It is smooth no roughness, it is a 1980 I read that pre 82 different kinds of metals including mercury was used, scary thought, I would swear it looks like a torch like the dime but it isn't anywhere else on the penny. Just on the tip of the back, nothing on the front and just a fingertip on the back I have never seen any coin that had that small amount of an impression of a different coin. I will try to take a better pic but a coin is hard to get the details to show
I have more questions about your notion that there is part of an image of a dime on your penny. Do you see any letters from a dime, or just the torch design. Can you tell if these elements are backwards from how they appear on a dime, or are exactly how they appear on the dime? thanks
I can't tell but the silvery zinc on the small back is silvery like the dime it is shiney the torch or what I think is a torch is placed between the word states so the t a t e is fattish and the second t has the torch the front of the penny is dull gray tho the back is shiney but only in that fingertip spot the rest is copper
I put some more pics on photobucket, this is the best I can seem to get but it is a little better... http://s839.photobucket.com/albums/zz311/jzacknae/penny/
wouldn't solder raise up off the coin? It is all even metal. I wish I had the sweet camera to show you how the whole thing looks.
I'm a plumber and after sweating a copper joint, I always wipe the joint off while the solder is still in a liquid form. It makes for a nicer looking job and the solder ends up looking like a stain on the copper not raised...
