Question about a penny

A couple of years ago I got a box of brand new 2021 pennies from the bank. I've slowly been going through the rolls when I found this. At first I thought some of the plating came off, but when I looked at it through my loupe the zinc appears to be covering over the copper surface. I've been getting a lot better at telling true errors from pmd but this one has me stumped. I'm assuming it happened at the Mint since it was in a new roll, but I could be wrong. Any ideas?

 

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Not an error of any kind, therefore damage or PMD.

 

…or an example of poor quality control/quality assurance. It is evidence of the lack of control to assure an acceptable product, both in the planchet creation process by the contractor and the striking of Zincolns by the Mint using an inferior product after the fact.

The actual head puzzler is the fact that millions of similar examples have been produced each year since 1982 and continues to this day with no end in sight…imo…Spark

 

The mint does not wrap coins in rolls. They send out large ballistic bags full to companies that do roll the coins. Armored cars and trucks take the coins from the Mint facilities to more than 100 private sector coin terminals. They wrap the coins. The coin terminals are operated by armored carrier services contracted by the Federal Reserve.

 

Isn’t the outer copper added after the blank is punched? It would cover a defective planchet if so.

Also, there are clear abrasion marks in the exposed zinc on the obverse. @SensibleSal66 is right, it’s damaged.

 

It’s totally PMD and those scrapes on the since proof it. You can also see raised metal on the edge of the scrape.

 

Ok, guys. Thank you all for clearing that up for me. I was really hoping I had something. I just finished the box today. I did find a bunch of really nice die cracks. At 12:00 on the obverse that some call it spiked head or something like that.

 

…….a defective contractor can produce defective planchets…imo…Spark

 

Very true, but would the striations in the zinc have survived the minting press? And if the cents are electroplated how did that spot get missed?

 

Being serious, not flippant or dismissal….

You can start with a defective planchet that makes its’ way through the stamping press and then suffers PMD in various forms. The PMD comes in a cornucopia of possible sources including intentional alteration and normal wear (exposure to human hands and atmosphere).

Remember we are talking about putrid Zincolns, which should never have been a viable choice of coinage in the first place. The 1943 zinc-plated steel cents proved it was a poor choice, and any zinc coin (Germany and others since) have also been dismal failures as circulation strikes. The high-grade survivor zinc coins from all countries who produced or are still producing them are those that have been recipient of heroic preservation, and, by this I mean protected or conserved and removed from circulation before they were damaged.
…imho…Spark

 

The copper coating is super thin and easily scraped off by accident or on purpose to expose the zinc core.

 

Honestly, I never understood why the Mint abandoned the idea of making cents out of aluminum like they were planning to do in the 70s. Aluminum is a better metal to use and if I remember correctly I think it's cheaper than zinc.

 

What the heck, they made and still make aluminum in tokens, and they last just as long. I'm just not sure about the whole process though, however.

 

Sure wish I owned one of these! Ha ha

 

I think the 1974 aluminum is illegal to own and subject to confiscation.
Yes they were handed out (to some members of congress?) and there is one in (The Smithsonian?) but if there are any in private hands that have not been turned in, they would have to be sold on the black market. The last person who possessed one and tried to sell it, had to turn it over to the feds.

 

Is that aiding and abetting and harboring a fugitive Penny?

 

I think they asked the people who received them as gifts, to return them.
There were a couple unaccounted for. But they confiscated one. I am not sure if any are still at large.

 

As far as I can determine, the Toven 1974(P) example is still in private hands. The Lawrence 1974-D example was determined to have been unlawfully removed from the mint and returned after a lengthy court battle. And there is one in the Smithsonian. I recall something about how the Toven example was a different legal situation, since the claim was that a congressman dropped it and Toven, who was a Capitol police officer at the time, was told he could keep it. Since they were given to congresspersons for their evaluation, I suppose the argument is that they legally left the mint, although the mint then wanted them all returned. I don't know if a determination was ever made about it. A 2016 Coin World article indicates that the mint would still pursue the return of the Toven example if they knew where it was, but I can't find any developments since then. It's an interesting story of course. Some sources say upwards of 12-14 of them are still out there.

 

I heard about that story. Supposedly a congressman dropped it and the officer thought it was a dime and picked it up and told the congressman that he dropped his dime and he told the officer to keep it. I guess when the officer picked it up is when he noticed it was a penny, not a dime. I might not be telling the story exactly how it happened. I'm just going by memory from reading about it many years ago.

 

Sounds like a good story to me. Let's go with it!