Yes. . I'm a newbie. Just a collector of my own finds of weird coins, us and foreign. I came across this in my grandfather's piggy bank that wasn' t touched since 1984 of "different" coins. I've not seen this before. Just curious what it is called, significance, mint error or post, etc.
Welcome to the neighborhood, Maria! What you have is a copper-plated cent with a zinc core. 1982 was the transition year when the US Mint changed from a copper core to a zinc core. Unfortunately, the "Zincoln" (as I call it) is extremely prone to deterioration when exposed to environmental factors such as humidity, moisture, etc. It's not worth saving. Chris
Yeah, Maria the cents that the mint has been putting out since 1982 corrode faster than a loose battery terminal...... BUT... This was your grandfathers which does make it rather special. Welcome to CT.
zinc rot, toss it into a coin counting machine at a bank an get your one cent out of it before it rots completely away...
