Neat Circulation Find

Got this penny in change today and at first glance I had a "Did I just find a 1943 Steel Penny?" moment but turns out it's just a penny missing the clad layer.. not sure if this is something that happened at the mint or was done artificially... Pretty beat up but kinda cool

 

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Interesting, there is a lot off copper left on that coin.

 

1988 Cents are Copper Plated Zinc planchets. They are plated and not Clad.
Quarters, Dimes and Kennedy Halves are Clad with a copper center core.

I think you just have Environmental Damage.

 

Show me the rim .
Lets see if someone removed the copper on it ...

 

This brings up an interesting point. What would the modern cent look like if it really got a lot of circulation? Wouldn't the thin copper coating wear off fairly quickly? When it did the zinc under it would start to corrode. Zinc is not a good coinage metal for that reason.

 

Keep in mind, there is un-plated cent .
Need to weigh it, to know for sure ...

 

Looks like maybe that's what happened, but why bother??

 

Someone removed the copper overlay .
Thanks for the image of the rim ...

 

The copper plating was stripped off, poorly I might add. Damaged now.