It is silver in color, non-magnetic and weighs 3.1 grams on the money. I would assume if it was electroplated the weight would be off. Any ideas?
A 1976 cent has a nominal weight of 3.11 grams and a normal weight range of 3.11 +/- 0.13 grams, so there is a lot of variation for normal. Plating is done in 'mils' thickness which is 1/1000 th of an inch, so plating usually just causes such a small increase in weight that it still falls in the normal range. Welcome to the Forum! Jim
could be mercury coated ...when I was in science class in 1979..everyone was able to play with the mercury..it was no big deal then