Silver penny?

I knew a coin dealer that used to plate steel pennies so they wouldn't rust. i found a steel penny once. the only way that I knew it was a penny was from copper ones in the same hole.
 
Another "silver" cent

This thread made me go and find a coin that I've had over 60 years. I either bought, or traded (the most likely) from another kid on the bus when I was in second grade. He had gotten it from a roll, and this was in 1956 when kids collected coins and were roll hunting for a Lincoln cent collection.

It's been in the flip for at least 40 and maybe 50 years and I haven't broken it out yet to weight and measure the coin. At the time people said it was either a dime (silver) planchet or a foreign coin planchet struck at the mint. I never took the time to actually figure it out. It is under-size for a cent, and without a full rim. The planchet was under-size and thinner than a cent planchet. As you can see, there is no rim at the top on the obverse and almost no rim on rev.
 

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This thread made me go and find a coin that I've had over 60 years. I either bought, or traded (the most likely) from another kid on the bus when I was in second grade. He had gotten it from a roll, and this was in 1956 when kids collected coins and were roll hunting for a Lincoln cent collection.

It's been in the flip for at least 40 and maybe 50 years and I haven't broken it out yet to weight and measure the coin. At the time people said it was either a dime (silver) planchet or a foreign coin planchet struck at the mint. I never took the time to actually figure it out. It is under-size for a cent, and without a full rim. The planchet was under-size and thinner than a cent planchet. As you can see, there is no rim at the top on the obverse and almost no rim on rev.

At first, I thought, "some kid did a 1950's mercury experiment" (Mercury was pretty accessible back then). But I don't think that's what's going on here.

More likely, someone had this zinc-washed, or plated. If you want to test for silver, without ruining it, pull it out, put it on a piece of aluminum foil, SPIT on it (seriously... spit on it), rub the foil around on the spit and aluminum (not so hard to scratch), adn then press the foil tightly around the coin. Let it sit for 30 seconds and open it back up. If it's silver you'll know it because of the nasty rotten egg/sulfur smell. (try this with a silver dime first, so you know what you're looking for). A zinc washed penny won't stink.

Next option would be to have this thing density checked. Weight/volume displaced would be different for copper, silver, etc... easy enough to do if you have a graduated cylinder. If not, and you have a small syringe, you could tare out the syringe and then add water to it, until you have the same amount of water weight as the weight of the penny. Then you know volume. :)

Cheers,

Skippy
 
Ok Skippy, I took it out of the holder. I was going to do the aluminum thing, but when I tried it on a merc, it did not work for me, so I'll have to practice or something.
Anyway, I weighed and measured to compare dimensions to a dime and they are very similar.
The weight on the Rosie bounced from 2.4 to 2.5 g., and the "silver cent" stuck at 2.4g.
The thickness on the two was virtually identical 0.044 for the cent, and 0.047 for the Rosie.
The diameters varied some, but if a dime planchet was used in cent dies, it would expand to fill the die, so it should be larger 0.729 for the "cent" and 0.701 for the Rosie.

I examined the rim of the "cent" and it is not smooth. I really don't know how to properly describe it. It shows some evidence of metal flow, it is not uniform. The brownish staining on the rim, as seen in the two images, seems to rub off, it is not another metal. I rubbed part of it off after the images were taken, but did not notice it until I saw the photos.

I really don't know what it is, maybe someone can figure it out. Lustre/color on the two coins is not exactly the same either, but the "cent" has been in a holder ever since I got it, or as long as I can remember anyway. The other coin has been handled, actually came out of the ground last year, so that would make some difference on coloring.

****
Edit: I tried being more patient with the spit test on silver, and got a result.
So I tried it on the silver colored cent and it didn't smell of sulphur: so it is most likely not silver. It is more shiny now :bling:
****

Pics below.
 

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my son had to silver plate a penny in his chemistry class. They do it every year. Very simple process. Sure there are many out there
 
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