Step Right up and See the Incredible Growing Lincoln.

MrLee · February 8, 2003 12:09PM

Hurry Hurry Hurry. Look for yourself and see this wonder of the world. Do you know what happened? Can you figure out what did it?

From everything I can see, it's an actual 1996-D Lincoln Cent. There is no copper left on it, the thickness appears to be the same and the edge is "double edged" now. I believe it was done by heat but I've never been able to duplicate it. Anyone else seen anything like it?

airplanenut · February 8, 2003 12:10PM

Maybe it was smashed with something (?)

maddox · February 8, 2003 12:13PM

maybe Xerox it at 110%?

Dog97 · February 8, 2003 12:21PM

My first thought is that it's an incased cent that was either stripped or plated.

LucyBop · February 8, 2003 12:23PM

my first thought is where is a gumball machine!

littlewicher · February 8, 2003 12:35PM

Can't you buy kits on ebay that turn Lincolns this color? It takes the plating off or something like that.

MrLee · February 8, 2003 12:46PM

<< <i>Can't you buy kits on ebay that turn Lincolns this color? It takes the plating off or something like that. >>

And makes it bigger?

coppercoins · February 8, 2003 1:30PM

I don't have a clue what post-mint job did that, but I can tell you it's not a mint error. The dies all come the same size and couldn't have struck a larger than normal design on a cent. The color could have easily been done a number of ways, first thing that comes to mind is the chemical treatments some people do that takes off the copper. Exactly what happened after that is something I couldn't even guess at.

LucyBop · February 8, 2003 1:34PM

One, Two , Three, Look at MrLee.......

Photoshop trickery?

coppercoins · February 8, 2003 1:34PM

Well, now that I think of it, if a person were to first strip off the copper leaving the single-alloy core (zinc only), then find some way to hammer the coin preserving the integrity of the design, it could come out looking like that. My guess is that it was hammered between two hard pieces of metal, such as steel plates. It would flatten the design somewhat, but would also expand the diameter of the piece and take the design elements with it. At any rate, when the design was struck into the coin both the planchet and the design were normal size.

coppercoins · February 8, 2003 1:38PM

<< <i>One, Two , Three, Look at MrLee.......

Photoshop trickery? >>

That one could be solved quickly.

Mr. Lee...place a color photo over the nickel/odd cent and scan them together so the color photo acts as a background for the coins, then post the scan. It would take some really good editing to do that - or it would be simple with an unedited scan of the real thing.

sinin1 · February 8, 2003 1:38PM

I think it is a counterfeit nickel made in Asia.

LucyBop · February 8, 2003 1:40PM

Three, Four, Five, MrLee don't give us no Jive......

MrLee · February 8, 2003 3:02PM

As per coppercoin's request:

And an extra close scan.

Considering how much it has been enlarged, there is very little distortion on the devices. One of the things I noticed was the features seems to be sharper than normal. Especially in the hair. I thought it might have been heated and that the copper peeled off but I've never been able to duplicate it.

coppercoins · February 8, 2003 4:31PM

Mr. Lee...I believed you all along...the request was for the benefit of others who thought it was a retouch job.

As for my knowledge of what could have happened - I gave it all above. I really can't tell except to say that I am relatively certain it happened outside the mint.

Cam40 · February 8, 2003 5:09PM

cladking · February 8, 2003 9:19PM

I've been told people used to make similar curiousities by pounding them
between pieces of leather. This looks like it could be the same.

Petescorner · February 8, 2003 11:18PM

I'm certainly no expert, but I can't see how that was ever a genuine coin. I'm thinking that it's a novelty/copy. Although why someone would go to all that trouble is beyond me.

crito · February 8, 2003 11:41PM

if it's the same thickness, I don't see how it could possibly be stretched. maybe someone with a laser cutter scanned a real cent and converted the file to vector graphics... seems to lack relief too, all the devices are the same depth. that's my guess, anyways.

lazeroo · February 8, 2003 11:51PM

looks to me to be a little larger planchet that wasen't coated, and then struck.

but not at the mint!

CThomas · February 9, 2003 12:46AM

Looks like it was in a house fire! My house burnt when I was a kid and my dads collection of wheat looked similar to that!

Just a guess though!

Chris

Conder101 · February 9, 2003 1:39AM

Cladking beat me to it. Supposedly you can get coins to spread like that without damage or distortion by placing them between two pieces of leather and beating them. Nickels stretched to the size of quarters "Texas nickels" were once commonplace.

Dog97 · February 9, 2003 1:43AM

Anybody else see the crimping damage on the rim from incasement? An encased texas penny?

MrLee · February 9, 2003 8:35AM

OK OK. I'll tell where I found it. About a year ago, around midnight, my wife wakes me to say she smells smoke. Our dryer had gotten stuck and caught on fire! I threw it out the back door (in the pouring rain and my underwear no less) and the next day started to dismantle it as so to get it into the trash containers. Deep inside, beyond the drum, lurking among the dust-bunnies, I found this little monster. Those that have seen it in person agree that it is a genuine Lincoln cent.

I have always assumed it was caused by the heat but when I've tried to duplicate it, I have either wound up just blackening a cent or melting it to a puddle. Somehow the temperature was just right to remove the copper, expand the zinc, but not melt it.

Who knows what could have happened if it had stayed in there longer. It might have grown to be as big as a hubcap. Or maybe it wasn't the heat at all. This creature could have been feeding off my missing socks!

baccaruda · February 9, 2003 12:13PM

mr. lee -

you can tell that story on ebay and get $100 for that penny i'll bet.

MrLee · February 9, 2003 12:19PM

It would only work if I was widowed by the fire. (Hmmm. Maybe it's not too late? "My Late Wife's Estate!")

clw54 · February 9, 2003 12:26PM

I got to see it in person. That penny was definitely strange, especially the changes that Lincoln's hair and beard went through.

MacCoin · February 9, 2003 12:28PM

<< <i> don't have a clue what post-mint job did that, but I can tell you it's not a mint error >>

ain't that the truth!!!
but I sure would like to see a bigger scan of the rev.

MrLee · February 9, 2003 12:40PM

Happy to oblige. The one thing I can't scan is the edge. It's raised on the outside and sinks in the middle forming two ridges.

cladking · February 9, 2003 8:46PM

I have great difficulty believing this was caused solely by heat. Surely
it has a nearly identical weight to a normal cent. Was the dryer thumping
or anything before the fire. Any chance the coin was already like that before
it got in the machine?

MadMarty · February 9, 2003 8:57PM

Must have been the underwear knomes...

Step Right up and See the Incredible Growing Lincoln.

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