Major NGC Gaffe

Don't mind me, I'm just here watching.

 

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Answer:

The planchet is not a 1943 steel planchet; it is a zinc cent planchet missing the copper plating. A major blunder that could cost someone about $140.

Steel planchets and Zinc cent planchets are very close in weight. (2.7 vs. 2.5 grams); the weight difference is within tolerance levels. (The copper plating is so thin on zinc cents that on most digital scales the difference won't even register.)

I understand the weight is similar, but there is a distinguishable color difference. Also, I'm not sure if they always do a check on metallic content, but even so they should have got it right on this.

I got this very, very cheap and I am keeping it as is as an educational piece; it's a $10 planchet with a label for a $150 error. Oops!!!

~Joe Cronin

 

@paddyman98

After examining it, what did you find about yours?

 

I believe mines to be correct. It doesn't have a upraised rim so it's just a Blank as stated on the label.

 

You 100% sure it's steel and not zinc?

 

Everyone should have an Acme® planchet tester

 

From my experience lately, with NGC and errors, I think the ones they get right are actually rarer.

 

Let me put a magnet up against the screen to see if the planchet is steel or zinc.........

 

Could you explain what the difference is (is one darker or lighter, have a different shade of grey or something like that)?

And, wouldn't an unplated planchet be rather rare? I could see a copper plated planchet being fairly common, but just the bare zinc core?

 

I assume a magnet test would be definitive, am I correct?

Did you do a magnet test? If yes, what was the outcome?

 

My thoughts exactly, although I guess a simple magnet test trumps everything else.

I've never seen a zinc-plated steel planchet, but until enough zinc corrodes away to expose steel, I don't see how it would look different from a pure zinc planchet. Maybe the exposed steel around the edge would look different, if you can look closely enough?

 

If this coin sticks to a magnet then somebody owes NGC an apology.

 

Unplated zinc planchets and blanks can be found easily and are offered by major error dealers for around $10-$20

As for color, I have never, ever seen a bright and lustrous steel blank or planchet. Never.
Zinc ones have a much more defined rim and tend to have a brighter blue tint.

There is no question this is a zinc cent planchet. The submitter sent about 30 of these to NGC and all were mislabeled as steel planchets.

@paddyman I really think yours is zinc unfortunately. Same lot # from the same submitter. All 30 he sent were zimc cent planchets

 

If it does, then it is steel actually

 

So has it been given the magnet test? Or a specific gravity test?

 

I received from my CT Secret Santa, (among a slew of other loot) an un-struck planchette. It is in plastic and when I bring a magnet near to it, I feel the slightest of tugs — that is all. Not enough attraction to pick it up. Here is a photo of mine.

 

1. It is slabbed

2. I don't need to. I know it is zinc. 100%

 

It won't. Zinc is not magnetic

 

Got it already slabbed

 

A good rare-earth magnet ought to work through the slab, though.

Yep, just tried it with an old hard-drive magnet and a circulated steelie. The magnet would lift the cent with a slabbed gold eagle between them. A slabbed steel planchet would feel enough pull to hold up its slab as well; there'd be no mistaking it.