Hello - I've been sorting through rolls of pennies for most of this summer. Aside from the old (and sometimes rare) coins I've come across, I also have a bunch of oddities that I'd like some info on. I recently went to a coin shop to buy a box of covers/sleeves, and brought my finds with me. The dealer showed little interest (this shop had multiple coins - even the ones I thought were ultra-rare), yet pulled a few aside and inspected them. He stated that my coins "weighed correctly", but didn't need any of them for his inventory. However, when I asked to pay for my covers, he asked if I wanted to trade them in for store credit - And since they were relatively worthless, he'd be doing me a favor. I declined and decided to attempt to reasearch what I had myself. I'm uploading some pics (please excuse the quality - a photographer I am not) to help with my descriptions. I placed a 1990D penny between two Steel 1943 pennies to show the contrast. I did the same with a 1983 penny that has an "aluminum" look to it. The final coin is another 1983 penny that you can "zoom in" on. It appears to me as if the reverse side of the coin was somehow stamped on the front side before Lincoln was put on the coin. I do intend to educate myself on the minting process in the near future. I also uploaded the reverse side of the coin, as there are also imprints underneath the printing on it. I placed red boxes around the most prominent areas of the coin. This last coin described is my favorite - It seems every time I slightly turn it, a new "raised bar" appears ! I plan to log on to this site later to view responses (if any) to this post. Please note that I'm pretty certain I know how to recognize "plated" coins. I keep a few which enable me to differentiate them from the coins I keep (which include a bunch of 1983+ pennies that have a brass/gold finish to them). Thank you in advance to those who submitted info for me.
The last one is a clashed die. Not valuable but a keeper anyway. First pic is too blurry to make anything out. The second pic would be better if you could just get a close up of the coin in question, obverse and reverse.
The '90 and the first '83 have probably just been dipped in an acid bath to remove the copper layer and exposing the zinc. I could be wrong though.
Diggit is right about the clash, and I think I can also see the inverted "Y" of LIBERTY between the 2nd & 3rd columns from the left on the Memorial. Chris
