You might be right ... aluminum paint. My father used to paint the roofs of his chicken houses with it in the 1950s to reflect the sun.
Most steel cent deteriorate from the edge first due to the edge being bare steel and not having any plating on it. Usually the edge gets plated when these coins are reprocessed/re-plated. I think if it was painted the edge would have been done also. It is possible your coin is original but has been stored it a bad environment for to long. A bit of acetone on a Q-tip may answer your question.
