Silver Wheat Cent - 1957-D ??

Well I was going through my wheat pennies... And while looking at my steel wheat cents I found one that had the wrong date on it for it to be steel... It is a 1957-D wheat cent and it looks almost silver, it is extremely shiny?
Does anyone know anything about this, perhaps it was struck on a silver dime planchet or something?

Photos can be found here on page 2

 

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Might be coated in mercury or someone chromed it. You would need to weigh it to determine if it is the wrong planchet. Ice

 

I'll go look for a food scale, will this work?

 

I don't think a food scale will go down that far

 

What should I use?

 

Try testing it with a magnet. If it sticks, then it's steel. If not, then it's probably plated. In the 50's & 60's nearly every high school offered a variety of shop classes. A lot of auto shop and machine shop classes had chroming tanks, so kids used to plate everything. Silver Cents were considered cool ! I will try to locate 1 or 2 around here and post a pic this week ?

You can try taping a pencil across a ruler at mid point and making a see saw balance. If the cent weighs less than another copper (1981 or earlier) then I could be on a dime planchet. But that would be extremely rare.

 

nickel will stick to a magnet also.

 

True, but I was thinking nickel would look greyish on a 1957 D cent if it were struck on a nickel planchet, not silver ? But I guess we really want to see a pic. If I feel better tomorrow I will try to post a chrome plated one. I am thinking there is a lot of testing he can do with a referigerator magnet, a ruler and a pencil and a few coins for weights ?

Gary

 

Well the cent is magnetic... that means that it is not chrome. It is not a nickel planchet. (possibly nickel plating). It could be steel? It isn't silver.
any ideas.

 

It would be cool if in 1943 a steel planchet fell in the cracks of a conveyer belt and then in 1957 it finally fell through onto a conveyer belt below it and got pressed into a penny and never got caught then made it into circulation!
But I doubt it..

 

pics?

nickels aren't magnetic by the way, 25% nickel content isn't enough to be magnetic

 

No nickels aren't magnetic (they are alloys) but pure nickel is.. That's why I was thinking it might be a plating issue.

 

It would be next to impossible for a cent to be struck on a nickel planchet because a nickel planchet is much larger than a cent and would not fit in the collar.

 

Oh It's the size of a penny or dime. not a nickel.

 

when i said "nickel" i was talking about the metal, not the coin.

the US nickel does not contain enough nickel to be magnetic. there are nickel coins that are though...

 

So its size is in between a cent and a dime?

 

I wonder how much someone would pay for a magnetic nickel.... Tomorrow I might go to the bank and get $200 worth of nickels... Hook a metal nail or something up to a big battery and make a super magnet & run it through the pile. If I don't find anything the worse that happens is I put the nickels back and get all of my original money hehe

 

Canadian nickels minted prior to 1959 are magnetic.

US nickels are not magnetic because they are 75% copper.

 

it could be fake but either way fake or real cant wait to see how this plays out

 

It's 3:30 am here in Georgia. I'll post pictures tomorrow. Also I'm going to a jeweler to get it weighed hopefully.
When weighing it I am going to also weigh:
2 normal 1957-D pennies. (I have tons from this year)
A normal steel cent.
A dime from around that time.

Anything else I should bring to weigh as well?

edit: It's the size (possibly a little smaller) of a penny. It is still possible that a dime planchet could have been stretched in the making of the coin due to pressure but that still wouldn't explain the magnetism... It sticks like steel. I doubt the coin was nickel plated too, It's way to shiny. It could be steel plated? But why would anyone waste their time doing that??? And it isn't chrome or silver. hmmm