Looking for any help on this. Found this penny in my change drawer at my store. I have placed a 1975 D penny next to it, and as you can see it is not made from copper. Has a gold and silver tones to it. Any thoughts?
YIKES! The next step was to tell you how to detect plating! In the future, NEVER scratch a coin as you will reduce its value if it actually is worth something!
I did not scratch it but it has several small scratches in it that show silver. How do you detect plating if you don't mind sharing...
It's a normal Cent. If it were struck lets say on a blank Dime Planchet it would be smaller and lighter in weight. I also suspect it's plated.
Need close up of surface. I use a stereo microscope. Some sings to look for are: 1. Breaks in the plating showing original surface. Usually found on the coin's rim. One trick is to plate the coin AFTER it was scratched so it looks the way your coin does. In that case you can tell by the way the scratch looks. 2. Plating bubbles and pimples. 3. Look for marks on the coin that are plated over. $. Sometimes Specific Gravity test works if the alloys are different. For example, silver and copper are very different. Nickel and copper are very close.
These tests are useful sometimes, but this one doesn't require them. It's zinc plated then heated, chemistry experiment. How could it be an off metal? There's no planchets at the mint that size of a different metal.
By the way the 1975 Cent you used to compare has a slight Obverse Misaligned Strike. Look at the slight Double Rim to the right of the date Minor error
Welcome to CT. Start you own thread and include in focus images on both sides. You will get some answers this way because you have posted this on a 5 year old dead post
