I have a 2012 penny with a completely blank reverse side. I have heard the talk about grinding it off but I am a 38 year Auto Collision technician and know what smooth out grind marks look like. In my opinion a grinder has not touched his penny. Any thoughts. Here are pics
Does not look like a grinder, especially not the type you would use as an auto technician, I would say however that it is sandpaper. You can see the low points are dark and look untouched while the higher points are scuffed up as if sanded. I did that as a kid, trying to make a battery, didn't work but it looks similar to this.
It's definitely an altered Cent. Before a blank Planchet is struck it goes through a procedure where the rim is upraised on both sides. It is passed through an upsetting machine. The absence of the upraised rim on your Cent is evidence of alteration. And the biggest evidence is that the Cent is a copper plated zinc planchet. The zinc is completely plated before it is struck so to have that side showing the zinc shows that it was altered after it left the US Mint. And.. try not to use metal tweezers to hold any coins. That's a big no-no in numismatics. Welcome to Cointalk
That's more preferable for the tweezers. When I started on CoinTalk over 10 years ago I used white cotton gloves. I don't use them any longer.
