1996 one sided penny

a buddy of mine owns a pawn shop & i've been checking in w/him on his coins. i've been telling him to watch his change in the register also. so today he shows me a penny he got in the register. a 1996 penny w/reverse completly smooth. i grabbed his lupe and looked at it & its genuine in my opinion. there arent any kinds of machining marks, it has no copper on the reverse that i can remember. i'll get some pics of it. so, if it is genuine, or even if it isnt, what should we do next?

 

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It's not possible for this to happen, this is commonly made after leaving the mint to make a magicians coin. A dime would fit in to the slot and the magician would flip the coin over, causing the illusion of turning a penny in to a dime.

 

Take some good photos.

A brockage or capped die could explain the "completely smooth" reverse but that would not explain the missing copper plating on the reverse.

 

ok, i got to check this coin out again today. it is a 1993 penny not a 1996. it is absolutely flat on the ''tails'' side, w/o copper on that side as well. no rim or anything on that 1 side. on the blank side, it ressembles the little plug that an electrician knocks out of an electrical box to run the wires through. it has no machine marks on it, even under magnification. it weighs 2.34 grams on his legal for trade scales. i took a couple of pics of it w/my phone but will get some better ones this coming week. i will post the pics i have as soon as they're done uploading. any tips on how to take good pics?

as far as it not being possible, it has to be. i have an example. i am absolutley positive this is real & i believe i know how it happened. i think 2 planchets stuck together before getting the copper coat. then this doubled planchet went through the striking dies, together. 1 got the front die strike & the other 1 got the backside die strike. then they seperated. therefor, there is at least one other real 1 sided penny out there,(the mate to this front 1/2 we've found) but it will only have the tails side struck.

will the coin grading services grade an error like this? if it is indeed the real mcCoy,(i have NO doubts) will they verify it on the label as such? also, what would a legit 1 sided penny be worth? just a ballpark figure...i am curious to know if it would be enough to retire on? or enuff to maybe take a short vacation? or barely enuff for a cup of coffee? i would like to know for insurance on the package if we send it off to be slabbed. if you had 1 you believed was real, would you trust usps or fed ex to take care of it & not lose it on its way to a grading service? thanks for your time.

 

Keep your day job.

 

lol @ hobo. i mainly was asking for shipping insurance b/c i think we are going to send it to NGC or PCGS to be graded. if its not a substantial amount, i believe my buddy may let me have it to put in my collection. thanks for the reply.

 

here are the pics i took. they are fairly clear but the color is off a little. the blank side is more grey than it looks in pic & the front is more copper looking. is it worth sending in to have graded?

note:the blank side looks grainly in the pics but it is very smooth. under magnification the grainy-ness appears to be light rust??? it looks like it may have had something lightly misted on it & caused it to surface rust. the bigger spots also look like a liquid dripped on it causing it to spot.

 

sorry to tell you but this is not a genuine error. There are a couple of things that are missing in order for it to happen according to your theory.

1. the blanks first had to go through the upsetting mill, which would have separated the coins had they been stuck together.

2.Had they somehow made it through the mill still stuck together the extra thickness would have caused the strike on this coin to be incredibly crisp but with extra high edges, niether of which are present.

3. in the extremely rare cases where two planchets enter the chamber and are struck together the result is a coin that has either an obverse or a reverse, but the "blank" side shows distortion from the extreme pressure applied to it. yours does not.

Your coin has been ground down and polished.

Richard

 

I'm with ziggy, this coin shows PMD.

 

We need facts. What does it weigh and measure?

 

From post #4:

 

Ziggy's comments are all correct and expalin why it can't be a genuine error, and the weight of 2.34 grams is too light. Specs would allow it to be a minimum of 2.4 grams. This has had the back machined off.

 

ok i will ask again, if i send this in to be graded, will they verify that its pmd and body bag it as such or slab it as an error if it is legit? i know a little about machining and i'm also a coin collector. i think had the coin been machined and buffed, it would lose more than just .06 gram. and it would have discernible marks, either actual machining/swirl marks or where it was chucked up. i'm willing to take the risk, ive seen this in person. i mean everyone thought the world was flat once. had chris columbus just took the word of the experts he wouldnt have even tried. how about just a lil support.

i'm still convinced its legit after looking at it again today. i'm not sure how to show the penny any better. i will try to put penny on a scanner bed to get better images. if it turns out to be pmd, so be it, it will go in my binder next to a blank planchet i recieved in pocket change several years back. im not trying to fool anyone.

i would like to have coin looked at regardless, so what is my next step? also, if it turns out to be legit, what kinda price range are we talking? would it be one of a kind? i only ask because is this something i should guard closely until its verified as fake? should i not let people keep it overnight to look at closer without receipt? that kind of stuff? i appreciate all of your comments, but as adamant as you are about it being pmd, i am equally convinced this is a mint error and would like it proven one way or the other. thank you again for your comments.

 

I wish I had a dollar for every time that has happened here.

 

If you are completely convinced it is an error, then you must submit it for grading and authentication. Opinions have no value to someone so convinced. Please post the results here.

 

Is there a coin shop near you? That's what I do when I have a questionable item. Sometimes I think my local dealer is a politician... he doesn't always commit himself. He'll say "Well, it could be genuine. Let's send it off and see." But most of the time you'll get an informed answer.

 

Any money spent trying to get this coin certified will be wasted. I have studied errors for over 20 years and have seen hundreds of these. This is 100% no questions asked PMD.

 

Well Matt, you know what the "captain" had to say about this:

"What we've got here is... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach...which is the way he wants it..."


Love that movie lol....

 

Lincoln cent errors and varieties are my thing and I have given the reasons why this isn't an error but post mint damage. people did once believe the world was flat but that was before they had seen the entire world. The methods by which coins are struck are fairly well understood at this point, things like whether a coin can end up plated on just one side or if 2 coins can be struck with the pressures that are created and come out looking like a weak strike. It is impossible that two planchets were so perfectly in contact with each other in the electroplating tank that absolutely no plating got on one side of the planchet.

The money you spend to get verification that this is post mint damage would be much better spent buying a nice coin for your collection.
I don't understand why you asked us what you should do if you really didn't want to loisten to our answers but to each their own.

Please let us know the results

Richard

 

Do you have calipers or a micrometer that you can measure the thickness, and compare it with another penny? That should give you a better idea as to whether it's genuine. There's no harm in sending it to be verified/graded to ease your mind.If the reverse design had been shaved off there still should be evidence of metal compression in the areas of maximum compression where the flat fields would have been. Take a good loook with at least a 10X loupe qoqr mqicroscope.