1972 thin, thin penny need help

[cw0909]

i have this neat looking, 1972 penny, that went through a chemical
prosecces, at a plating co.. that only left the copper, and the coin
and its engraving intacted.
but it is so thin now, its hard to get a pic.
Q is how do i get a pic from a, samsung digimax 4010, in marco, to come out
so you can see it , on edge, for comparison to the old wheats and the clad
ive never seen anything like it, i want them to do a wheat and see what happens
but anyway
so far i have blurry pics, its like the camera focuses on the bigger coin,
and not the sizes of all the coins

 

[cw0909]

i took like 20 more pics and these are the best of the lot
maybe a scan would work better,ill try that laterand see
if it works out

 

[mlayers]

I can not help you on the pics. As I have the same trouble with my camera when trying to get close up of my finds. But you can tell the different in the thickness...Matt

 

[MODIGGER]

You might check to see if your camera has a "macro" setting, it is for zooming up to very close and very small items. Other wise see if you can turn off the auto focus and try that. You might also turn on the landscape setting. somtimes that works too, i'm not at all familiar with your camera so i dont have any particulars for you. Hope something works. Neat pics non-the-less. -Chris

 

[allen]

that penny does look really thin.

 

[cw0909]

i added a scan of the penny, at least you can see it
but still cant get a good shot of how thin
my friend says its all copper now, he tried to explain
how it works, and still leave the engraving, but i dont get it
all i know is in the strip tank and some other tank, and a hour
or so later only the copper is left

 

[jsandin]

A 1972 penny is solid copper, so your penny is not an example of zinc being somehow removed from beneath a copper plating.

A chemical bath (in this case most likely acid or ferric chloride) eats the metal evenly. It affects the coin's appearance differently than if the coin wore down from friction. That's why the design is still visible. The diameter is smaller because the chemical bath ate the edges too.