Lincoln Cent 1946-S altered penny made to pass as dime

WillieBoyd2

I checked the local CoinStar machine today and saw several coins in the reject bin.

Usually a foreign coin causes the machine to reject coins, buy all 30 of the coins were US pennies,
probably from the same person but I can not be sure.

One had been hammered to nearly the size of a quarter; that one probably caused the rejection.

Of the others, 8 were zinc, 19 were Lincoln Memorial copper, and two were wheat pennies,
a 1956 which had two wire-cutter marks, and this altered 1946-S penny:



The coin was probably altered with a file to pass as a dime in a vending machine.
It weighs 2.67gm, is 19mm in diameter, and the sides are smooth.

I had heard of pennies altered this way but had not seen one until now.

On December 3, 2010 President Obama pardoned a man for doing this "coin mutilation" in 1963:
http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=26&threadid=797038

CaptHenway

Back when pay phones were a dime I used to see cents cut down to dime size. An awful lot of work for 9 cents profit!

bolivarshagnasty

When you are a teenager, you have too much free time. Buddy's and I used to make them to go to the arcades. I think a dime would get you three plays on a pinball machine. We'd use a pay phone as a go-no go tester. If the phone gave you a dial tone, hit the receiver button and get the coin back. If it did not accept the coin, go work on it some more.

drwstr123

Used to make phones calls often to cents.
Just a wire cutter and snip off the rim does it.
Back then you would get, "Please deposit ...for additional ...minutes".

ricko

Yep.... cutting down cents to work as dimes was a big deal at one time....Cheers, RickO