Hi Everyone Just to like to know whether anyone has any info regarding brass lincoln cent? I have one graded by ANACS by they are unable to verify the variety. Tried searching around can't get any answers. The cent is dated 1971 and it is brass in color. thanks Eric
Your coin is not considered "one of the Brass Plated cents that can be verified. Your coin is not considered "one of the Brass Plated cents that can be verified. Ken Potter has some attributed by ANACS only I think and the dates are 1985, 1997, 1998 - I don't even think NGC or PCGS cares about these. Being brass in color is not the criteria though - it's that they were left to long in the plating bath (or not long enough) I forget and they were zinc cents. All Lincoln's from 1962 to 1981 though are brass composition in case you wanted to know so it is nothing special that your 1971 is brass, it is. It is only special that the ones I mentioned being copper coated turned out a significant number that really were different in color, dramatically in color. Side by side tey are a pale yellow, very different. You can also find some 1983-P & D that have this effect.
Another one I found exactly the same coin - very yellow in color compared to others (picked it out of a cash register drawer)...
An explanation posted in Numismaster 7/29/09 stated the following; "There were brass-plated cents struck in 1983 and 1985 but not brass cents. There is a very important distinction between a brass and a brass-plated cent. A brass cent would have been struck on a solid brass planchet - 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc. Beginning in 1982, the cent planchets were changed to a copper-plated zinc. In both 1983 and 1985 batches of the coins got overheated in processing and the zinc core bled into the copper plating, turning it into a brass plating." More recently, the list of specimens having this appearance has been expanded to include the dates 83, 85D, 97, 97D and 98. It will be interesting to see whether these will be considered composition varieties or errors when all the dust finally settles... - PH
Nonsense. Brass plating comes from from zinc contaminated plating solution and can occur in any year. In fact since the solution starts becoming contaminated with the first batch of planchets plated, EVERY Zincoln is actually brass plated. It is just a matter of how much zinc is in the brass plating. They try to replace the plating solution before it become so contaminated that the plating takes on the yellow color people associate with "brass".
Conder101 is right. Zinc will leach into the copper plating bath. I recall reading (don't remember the source) that during the early days of production, zinc blanks would fall into the plating tank and dissolve. The resulting copper plating would contain zinc (Brass is an alloy of copper and roughly 30-50% Zinc). Typically, the "brassy" cents are mostly seen during the early years of production. Since then, process control improved. Also, you cannot use color to verify a "Brass" plated cent. You need to do some sort of quantitative analysis like XRD or XRF to determine the zinc content.
I found this on line at, http://users.scronline.com/lockem/20thcentury.txt 1983,1985-D Brass plated zinc Another planchet variety; this one a bit controversial, since the brass color can be simulated by heating a struck coin. Correct coins should be coin brass, the same color as pre 1982 cents; not bright yellow. According to the mint report on these, they should be classified as a mint error rather than a planchet type. The official explanation is that the planchets were overheated during annealing, resulting in zinc migrating into the copper (thankyou, Alan Herbert). I had collected 2 brassy colored coins in the late 80s from circulation. I always wondered if they were altered or what. About a year ago, I found the above explanation. It turns out one of the coins was a 83 and the other was a 85-D. I attached pics. I also have a second 83 with a very subtle brassy color.
