I found this wheat penny that looked like any other wheat. I was looking through my coin roll finds and encountered this one that doesn't pass the magnet test.
Any steel cent exposed to the elements for long periods of time will oxidize, and end up looking exactly like your example. As stated above, it was probably in the ground for awhile.
I actually have a metal detector but this was in rolls that appeared to be unopened since 1979. The were brought into a bank I ordered a box from but they got these and wanted to get rid of them.
It was funny though because it blended in with the copper pennies so I thought maybe some copper wore onto it while sitting in the rolls.
Did there happen to be anything else of interest in these old rolls? Besides lots of copper, that is.
not as much as you think. I don't know if or how copper would rub off. I just know I didn't notice that it was any different than any other wheat. All the coins were copper, some mint state especially all the newest pennies, which were 1979. I kept a stack of mint state 1960s to check for a small date. No older wheats, the oldest was 1929. If I was really copper penny hoarding I would keep them all but just limited that to the late 50 and 60s lincolns.
It could have been plated. Below is an advertisement from Numismatic Scrapbook magazine in 1960. Plating and cleaning products were advertise through out the issue. Notice that you had to send in your own coins and they would plate them to protect themselves against consequences. Once the ultra-rarity of copper 1943 cents became public legends, many of these were produced and eventually flow to recirculate when they are realized to be fake. They show up in old i nherited collections especially. Jim
