This penny is only .036" -.037" thick. I can't even imagine how it was made. Can anyone put a price on this for me?
This was used in a high school project, I believe. They take an iron compound, and I think a sodium-iodine solution and drop the penny in it. It bubbles up some of the copper and then they strain the solution, and melt it to get a small amount of copper. I was a sophomore 2 years ago and we did that. Ohhhh how I hated putting that 1936 wheatie in there...
Wasn't my choice. They re-used ones from the year before, and my older-lady teacher refused to admit that other coins were copper and not zinc. She was a stubborn woman. Anyway, most of the coins looked like this, however mine I could tell was only used once, it was much better looking than the others.
We also had to scrape them, too. Little sandpaper scratches on the rim for ours. May explain why there is a lack of a rim on this example?
Didn't help that she had my teenage father back in 1989... Either way, The coin is probably still in that lab. I bet this years sophomores and juniors will use the same penny.
Teachers stay around a long time. My 4th grade teacher taught my dad, my grandmother and my little sister who is 10 years younger than me. She taught 4th grade for 75 years. I should say that she was a nun and they taught until they died. I have been out of school for more than 50 years, I wonder if my Science teacher is still teaching. Thanks for the story of how that penny came to be.