Strange wheat penny with blank side by Jason Hansen posted Jan 10, 2018 at 9:00 AM Strange wheat penny with blank side by Jason Hansen posted Jan 10, 2018 at 9:00 AM
A wheat back cent should weight 3.11g. If one side was ground off...like appears to have happened here, it should be a bit less. If the coin does weigh 3.5g I would say it's a fake. If it weighs more where it should it's post mint damage.
I checked the scale and it is accurate. What puzzles me a bit is that I found it metal detecting my 110 year old yard. I found dozens of wheat pennies and several silver quarters and dimes. If it is a fake I would assume it wasn't made recently. Thanks for all the input everyone.
Welcome to CT!! Unless you live in Hawaii or some where like it that is still growing land due to volcanic activity, your yard is much older that 110 years old...just saying.
Sorry if you see a lot of skepticism, but it isn't possible for the mint to make a wheat cent like the one you have pictured, with a blank, silver colored obverse. Since you metal detect, have you found other cents with a pristine surface in your yard/local area? The back of the coin doesn't appear to have any corrosion or discoloration. Copper is a very reactive metal and it's really strange that it would look like this after being buried.
Photo next to another cent, as it should weigh less, not more. Perhaps it was not ground off, but covered in some melted metal. Since the interior should be copper.
