I found this cent searching a bag of wheats I got from a dealer. Its smaller in diameter than a normal cent and its zink coated. It weighs 2.7g. Was there a planchet like that in 1929, foreign or U.S.? Anybody have any idea..
I am thinking that your coin was modified after it left the mint. It seems as though someone was trying to make it look like a dime. Sure was some hard times back in the 30's.
Yes - don't know for certain, but that's what most of the cut-down coins were used for like that --- there were other purposes too, but we can assume this particular coin was cut down to be used as a dime in a machine.
Back in the 50's, some Coke machines would accept cut down electric box "knock outs" as nickels...or at least that's what I was told...
Acid coin. Surface porosity. If you time the rate of decrease of size and weight for a certain acid conc. , the same type of clean cent coins will end with the same properties. Copper and silver are close enough in density to fool most machines. the last dime machine I have seen was a "dime ball" dispenser my son found at a restaurant 25 years ago. Jim
When I was about 10 years old, my older cousin would spend hours filing down cents so he could cheat vending machines. He handed me one once an I tried it in a pop machine at a filling station. The owner ran out and immediately threw open the machine and did one of those "Ah Hah!" things and chased me off. Short lived crime spree. I think my cousin also tried splitting $1 & $10 bills in half so he would have two $10's. I know he spent hours trying to do it, but don't know what became of it.
It was in the bottom of the bag with a bunch of steel cents and I thought it was a 1943 along with the others. It wasn't until I looked at the date that I was it wasn't. Im thinking the zinc came from the steel cents that it was in contact with. I guess it has been filed but I wasnt sure if it had some milling issues with the rim.. here it is next to a steel cent
