Can anyone exsplain to me how this coin got to be plated with gold /silver and unknown plachet . The weight is 3.11 grams and diametor is 19mm . shouldnt this coin weight more with the extra plating of gold and silver. a magnet sticks to the gold but does not stick to the silver exsposed were the damage is .
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&cp=15&gs_id=19&xhr=t&q=plating%20pennies&safe=off&rlz=1R2ACAW_enCA405&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1366&bih=530&wrapid=tljp1328623149645028&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbm=vid&source=og&sa=N&tab=iv&ei=QC4xT_T2MMqBgwe_3cCrBQ Welcome to Coin Talk!
Haven't you ever done the zinc plated penny experiment in science class countryboy? The layer of zinc is so thin that you cannot detect it by weighing it. It so thin, in fact, that if you pass it over a gas flame it will react and mix with the copper under it and turn gold. The same thing can also be done with ferrous metals on copper cents. That is what you are seeing on your golden cent.
quartertapper you say the metels mix but their is no mixing of metals in this coin .the gold and silver on this coin are seperate layers . the gold has peeled of were the damage has accoured and the silver has crack in the damaged area but i cant tell what is inside
Well, I am thinking that this coin may have been dipped a couple times in different metals, but guessing neither are silver or gold. The silver colored metal is something containing iron, and gold could be anyone's guess. If it does not tone, there's a slim possibility that it might be gold, but bronze would be more likely.
magnet does not stick the the silver plating but does to the gold layer. . shouldnt this coin weight more then 3.11 grams .with the extra platings
This is a novelty item, not an error or mint-made product. Just toss it into a jar with the other oddball stuff you find.
Thank you all for your thoughts on my coin . i may hold up on the tossing it in a jar for the time being .
Yes the plating would add weight, but you don't know how much the cent really weighed before the plating. Specs say 3.11 grams but there is also a .1 gram tolerance so it could have weighed as little as 3 grams before the plating. Second a plating can be very thin and would add very little weight. The copper plating on out current cents is relatively thick and only adds .05 grams to the weight of the zinc blank.
It is most likely a science experiment, done in thousands of schools each year. The silver cent is made by chemical reaction with zinc dust to plate it with a shiney silver colored metal, like a BU 1943 cent that was zinc plated. To make it gold colored, heat is used to react the zinc to the underlying copper making Brass which appears gold. http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/gold-pennies
One more question and iam over it, if this was hanging on a necklace or keychain wouldnt the clasp be attached to the top or bottom , not the side
Not if someone made it in school. It could have been a charm for for his/her mother (birthyear). With stuff like this, it's easy to determine that it wasn't made at the mint. Why it was done, only the maker knows .
