Hey everyone, long time no chat with ya'll. I have a cent I'm not sure which planchet it was struck on. In 1972 The Canadian mint minted the Venezuela five centimos coin, which should weigh in at 2.5 grams, and this cent is weighing in at 1.65 grams. That seems like a pretty large difference. so I don't think it would be that one. Any suggestions? The coin has a weak strike, and shadowing around the date. It seems the denticles are even around the entire edge, so the planchet seems it was lined up well in the chamber. Here is the error cent on the left compared to a regular cent on the right.
I'm going to guess that it was eaten away by acid, based on the loss of mass, retention of design, and orange-peel like appearance in the fields.
I had contemplated the idea that it may be an acid wash, what makes me think it isn't an acid wash is that the coin is missing 1.58 grams. That is a lot of weight to lose in a wash. I agree the orange effect is strange, but I believe that could come from a weak strike due to the planchet not actually filling the striking chamber. as well, the shadowing on the date. I'll try again to get a photo of the date a little clearer, which I couldn't get earlier. I appreciate your comments.
Strange things happen to one cent coins. I agree that an acid wash wouldn't cause the loss of that much mass, but who is to say it didn't sit in some acidic environment for an extended period of time somewhere along the line? Check out this site for all the known errors for this and other Canadian coinage: http://www.coinsandcanada.com/coins-prices.php?coin=1-cent-1972&years=1-cent-1965-2012 Good luck!
I feel like if this coin sat in acid for an extended duration, there wouldn't be this much detail. Now I can't be confident, but I feel that based on the thickness from device on obverse, to device on reverse, that that thickness would not even equate to the thickness of field - field on a normal struck one cent planchet. I appreciate the link to coins and Canada, I am quite familiar with the site, and they do offer great knowledge on varieties, but not so much on errors, ESPECIALLY wrong planchet types. Cheers,
Actually that amount of detail is exactly what would be seen from an extended acid dip. I have seen U.S. Cents that have been dissolved to about the thickness of a silver 3 cent piece and they still have quite a bit of detail. The surface shrinks uniformly, leaving more detail than you would expect. Richard
Maybe a split planchet before the strike? Can't really see the surface of the coin on the red photos...
Those who guessed an acid soak are correct. When a coin is struck, The design is actually struck into the coin, not just on the surface of the planchet. A great deal of detail is actually in the middle of the planchet. It's an acid soaked cent. that's all. Thanks, Bill
Acid soak would make the cent almost 50% thinner and maintain that much detail on both sides? I really find that hard to believe.
Yes it would. I've seen cents dissolved to being so thin they could bend in your hand and the details are still evident.
Awesome, thanks all, I did not realize details would still be evident after a cent had dissolved this much.
I knew I had these images somewhere. heres an indian cent that was soaked in acid for awhile. Note the color is almost identical to the Canadian cent above. This thing is about half the width of a dime.
Well now ... that is pseudo scientifical and kinda sorta matches up to Canadian cents. Thanks for bringing it by
This goes back to the beginning of the thread. the detail is still very strong even though the coin has been soaked in acid. The material is about the same. The color is about the same. So the relationship between the two as being acid dipped is what is being pointed out. So pseudo-scientifically , the idea is that two coins made of similar materials, look similar after being treated to an acid soak.
I am curious about the chemistry implied. Do you know the type strength and quantity of acid involved and the duration of the soak?
Actually, it was a college science experiment. Indian head cents were cheap back then and I had to do something different than just the usual Lincoln cent. So I used a 1902 Indian Head cent (XF condition), 3.09 grams; composition .950 copper, .050 tin and zinc. It was Soaked in Concentrated Nitric acid with a starting PH of 1.2 . The coin was soaked for about 90 seconds sitting in a small pyrex flask under a vent hood. The coin was removed from the flask after about 90 seconds. We stopped the exothermic reaction with water. The coin was then rinsed clean with distilled water. The Copper was oxidized by the concentrated nitric acid, HNO3, to produce Cu2+ ions; the nitric acid is reduced to nitrogen dioxide. Cu(s) + 4HNO3(aq) ——> Cu(NO3)2(aq) + 2NO2(g) + 2H2O(l) Even today, this is a common science experiment. We ended up with brown gas and blue liquid (suspended copper ions) and after removing the coin from the flask and a rinse in distilled water, the cent remained as above.