Hey I snagged this a few days ago for $3 and I just said who cares if its colored with crayon if it could be a steel planchet but like I assumed it is not and it was also actually said to be a error coin at a live auction I assume because of the cut but I do not know.. it is a 1942 wheat cent.. the outer rim shows copper and it has the weight of a normal copper cent but it does not look to be plated by the average Joe and looks more like it was meant to be there.. I am just looking for info on how this happens and what it is called because I know I have heard of it and seen pictures of them but I cant find my old source so while I look further if any knows what I am talking about or can tell me what the error is on this coin if any feel free to elaborate on this for me and any future finds like this. Code: [URL=http://i802.photobucket.com/albums/yy305/uploadingenral/errorcoins/7533cd17.jpg][IMG]http://i802.photobucket.com/albums/yy305/uploadingenral/errorcoins/th_7533cd17.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://i802.photobucket.com/albums/yy305/uploadingenral/errorcoins/407647c2.jpg][IMG]http://i802.photobucket.com/albums/yy305/uploadingenral/errorcoins/th_407647c2.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
Many cents were plated in the 1960s, mostly 1943 steel cents with copper, but also 1943 cents were "replated" with zinc to make them look BU rather than the circulated or rusty condition. It is not too hard to imagine someone replating a copper cent with zinc. It is done in many chemistry classes. In the coin magazines of the 60s, there were ads for sending in your zinc cents and they would plate them with copper to make a rarity. You have to send in your own coins for legal reasons, so they couldn't be accused of selling fakes themselves. Since the weight was that of a copper cent, and the edge was copper, that is what it probably is. Jim
It might be zinc, but the standard way to do this -- it was in every "chemical magic" book from the 1950's -- was to rub a penny with mercury. The mercury alloys (amalgamates) with the copper, turning it silver-colored. I sort of miss the days when every science classroom, and most home chemistry setups, had a bottle of mercury.
