Over the hills and through the woods.....

[ScubaFinder]

To GRANDMA's house we go We recently put both of my grandparents into a nursing home, and I was charged with cleaning up the house. I found three old jars of pennies...and of course brought them home to have a look. Over 200 Wheaties, 2 Indian Heads, and a strange penny later, I'm glad I did!

I'm most interested in this penny, it's a 1985D but it's completely colorless, shiny, but not copper I don't think. I'm new to this, but this looks like a penny that was accidentally struck out of nickel or something, possibly like an uncirculated steel penny, but I'm not aware of anything like that going on in 1985?? Any guesses?

Next is a jar filled with wheaties...not sure what these a worth, probably next to nothing, but there are over 200 of them and ALL are wheat pennys.

And last but not least, 2 indian head pennies in the jar with the strange silver looking penny - 1884 and 1899.

Also found about 10 books of stamps, some from Germany from Hitlers 1000 year empire era, Every Wildlife Conservation series from 1960-1984, and more. A good day of hunting even though it was raining, I didn't have my detector, and was picking up dead rats in between treasure

Jason

 

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[Antny]

Hi Jason,
That's funny.....a few days ago I posted a 1945 "wheat cent" (not penny lol")
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,46798.0.html
I'm gonna get mine checked out & report back here. Is yours magnetic?
Antny.

 

[ScubaFinder]

Thanks for the info Anthony, it is NOT magnetic...here's another shot to show the color difference a little better. It looks exactly like a nickel or dime in color and lustre, but it's a penny (OK, a cent for you guys whos sphincters are wound a little too tight ). This was shot under tungsten lighting with no flash, there is NO yellow or bronze color at all...If I handed it to you, you'd think it was a dime. Maybe I should send it in for certification too. Where did you send yours?

Jason

 

[Michigan Badger]

Somebody forgot to coat it?

I've got an Indian cent that has a piece of silver stamped into the Indian's head. It appears to be a scrap piece of silver from the mint somehow got into the die.

Anyway, these things are neat.

Badger

 

[sbean29]

Hey,
I remember in science class about a century ago we took a copper penny and rubbed mercury on it and it came out just like the cent you have pictured. If this is what you have wash your hands before you eat. If it was struck at the mint with the wrong metal you have a very rare oddity and could be worth a whole lotta cents. I am very curious as to what you find out. It should do fine on EBAY.

 

[Blackjack77]

Sbean29 beat Me to it. Does it feel kind of slimy? Might be mercury coated. I have two 196? Mercury dipped in cointainers My Wife recieved from Her parents. Oddities-not worth much, and Yes be careful.
On the other hand if it was struck on the wrong planchet- could be worth something.
Get it checked at a reputable dealer.
HH

 

[ScubaFinder]

Well while you guys were posting the warnings, I was eating Taco Bell...with my hands So if I die, it's mercury coated, if I live it might be worth something For the record, it doesn't feel any different than any other coin.

I live in a town of about 100,000 -so I doubt there will be much of a coin dealer here...never looked to be honest. I will be in Dallas next weekend, so I may run it by somewhere then. Is there any way for me to test whether it is mercury dipped or not? I work in a lab that deals in superalloy coatings, maybe one of our metalurgists could tell me.

Jason

 

[willie d]

Cool finds, I think it might be a nickel plated penny, but I hope I'm wrong and it's worth a bunch. Here's a couple of odd coins I've found.

 

[wcgems]

Well, considering that it is a 1985 cent/penny I would be willing to say that it is almost certainly just a coin that never received its copper coating since all one cent pieces haev been made from ZINC since 1982. And ZINC is a white metal, so...... it would look like a dime without its copper coating.

Doubt its valuable though as it just as easy to strip the copper off so there is no REAL way to prove that it was never coated to begin with.

 

[Detectingfreak]

Interesting coin! that is odd that it is not copper

 

[Rusted_Iron]

It's probably not an uncoated zinc core. The zinc wouldn't be thick enough to have all the details of a complete cent, would it?

 

[ScubaFinder]

Well, I had to get out late tonight anyways so I went by the plant...no metalurgists there, but our scope operator was. We put it under the scope and he was certain that is was not coated or rubbed with Mercury. Some of you may be versed enough to confirm or deny his thoughts, but he said if it was a mercury rub, the surface would be almost glass smooth even at relatively high magnification, but the surface of this coin was pitted much like you would expect from most solid metals.

He also said that if a cent had been plated with nickel for example, you'd be able to see a small filet around the fine details like the lettering, and there was none. In fact, we checked several other cents that we had in our pockets, and the fine details appear to almost be sharper on this coin than even a 2005 that we had.

It wasn't in circulation very long, that's for sure, it's almost scratch free at 100x, at 1000x you could see the pitting, but he wasn't sure what metal it was. He works mostly in Platinum Aluminide and Titanium coatings, so all he could really say was that it was NOT Platinum, Aluminum, or Titanium.

I'd be interested to know if the above comment is true about their not being enough zinc in the core to pick up the details...cause this one definitely has all the details. I'd think the zinc core would have all the details prior to be coated with copper, it is copper plated correct?

Jason

 

[J Dubs]

Hey we did something that makes pennys turn out exactly like that in my chemistry class. it wasnt mercury rub, we put it in a beaker and bring water to a boil and add something and it changes the ions and makes it silver. I dont think someone forgot to plate it, it was someones from an experiment like that.

 

[UnknownBounty]

yes, that's right, there are a few experiments that mess with it like that. another was to make a nickle look like gold? chemicals, got to love em.

 

[Blind.In.Texas]

Here is a link to a site that has some wheat penny values. Just a guide so DO blame me if you find one hundred beeleeon dollars in wheaties....... by the way..... did you at least run the MD over that stuff before posting?

great finds! hanks for sharing! now i can't wait to put granny in a home!!! jk....