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Message:: [QUOTE="GSDykes, post: 4016091, member: 73321"]My thots:I've always used the term "orange peel" surface as regards US cents minted post 1982. As you know in 1983, cents became zinc cores coated with a very thin layer of copper.  I used to have a list of the suppliers of rolls (sheets) of this planchet material sold to the US mints. In the early days (1982-1985) it presented quite a challenge to produce the layered sheets, the thin copper layer often would separate in various fashions. One such problem was this slight "bubbling" or orange peel effect. It normally showed up after minting. Who knows during the annealing or washing/drying/ tumbling. As time passed the problem was mostly eliminated. However, there can be found some examples from cents minted in the post 1980's and even into the 90's. This is basically what I recall. Perhaps this is the cause, but the image in the OP appears to be more than this coating type error, probably as stated PED. (post enviromental damage). I posted a nice image of a 1982 zin cent, it shows minor orange peel, I will add it below: as you can see this slight orange peel effect can be attractive, or gross. Below it is quite attractive. adds texture! Click to zoom, apparent in front of Lincoln's portrait. Gary in Washington [ATTACH=full]1056127[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]