Wheat cent mystery
Rblackwell30
Posts: 6 ✭
I recently found a stash of steel cents that my dad had, but one of them is a mystery to me. It's non-ferrous, but looks like the steel pennies. The date is what is puzzling. Maybe someone could help me out?
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TomB
Posts: 21,886 ✭✭✭✭✭
It was plated after it left the US Mint. As for the potential next question of "why was it plated after it left the US Mint?" well, that will remain a mystery.
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Plated?
I kinda thought that too, but would it have been done at the mint or someone at their house?
Thank you!
there are members here who worked in shops that did plating. plating a coin was a way to test a setup
(btw, current cents are copper plated zinc. the blanks are made by a separate manufacturer and not by the mint)
could also be mercury - an older PCGS article on silver colored cents
https://pcgs.com/news/authenticating-silver-pennies
I've been trying to figure out what the plating is. It's not magnetic, even a tiny bit and I've already soaked it in vinegar for a couple of days. All that did was clean it. I've got it soaking in acetone now (fingernail polish remover) and it is starting to turn black slightly. Surely it's not silver plating, is it?
Vinegar or fingernail polish remover are a poor choice. You need pure acetone like you get at the hardware store. Vinegar will eat the surface of the coin. Polish remover has all kinds of stuff in it that you don't want on your coins.
If it's plated with metal then any kind of soaking won't do anything.
I'm not sure of the purpose of any further testing, but to each their own
even silver plated, it's such a tiny amount of silver and would cost more to get off the surface, if it's possible, than the silver is worth, that it would only be valuable to you.(no insult, but you'll fell like score! and others would still think "just plated."
I was thinking maybe I could get the plating off and have a beautiful penny for my collection. But probably not lol
unsearched - if you know they are all wheats then they are searched
don't buy those bogus "put together" rolls, especially those rolls showing non-cent coins inside. those are scams
you'll pay more than 1 cent per coin, but you can buy wheats by the pound. don't believe the word "unsearched"
Plating will not come off cleanly. At best it will lane a pitted surface behind. For a coin worth less than 10 cents, it's just not worth it other than as a science experiment.
????
ooops. no proofreading again
so, if you want some coins to fill a cent album, you can try there instead of unplating a coin