Anyone know how this could happen? This 1998 penny has the design “inside out.” Where anything would usually be raised, it’s sunken in. ??? Can anyone provide info? Also the edges are worn down. Don’t have a scale so I don’t know how much it weighs. Just never seen anything like it!
Environmental damage after it left the mint and I suppose some kind of acidic environment. But we will never know unless someone who found it could tell you where it came from.
Thanks- it was just in a ziploc of coins, so no clue from whence it came. So, if I understand you, it was worn down somehow, exposing lower layers, which then reacted to something corrosive to the lower layers but not the top layer?
I have never seen an incuse penny before; no idea how that could have happened at the mint. Looking at the damage on it and how deeply incused it is, also the lettering is all pretty bad, I'd say it was sand cast.
Google it - also lost wax casting which is more likely. The dimple between the E and C of ONE CENT was a sprue.
Sand casting, as well as lost wax casting, are methods of pouring molten metal into temporary mold to create a 3-Dimensional object.
