1946 wheat cent weighs 2.5 grams

[Sheila ruley]

Is this normal for a 1946 wheat cent to weigh 2.5 grams? What is this?

[stoneman227]

Definitely underweight. Was there something in particular that caught your attention and prompted you to weigh it ?

John

[Sheila ruley]

I had about 3 or 4 wheat pennies in my hand because I was just going through them. I accidentally dropped them on my desk and when I did, something sounded different. So I just individually dropped one at a time and I realized it didn't sound right, so I weighed it. To my surprise, it was under weight. I looked everywhere online that I could think of and I can't find anything.

[stoneman227]

Nice ! The planchet could have been from part of a metal strip that was rolled thin or the planchet could have laminated before it was struck. My avatar is a 60-d was struck on a split planchet and weighs only 1.6 grams. Your pics are a bit dark to see if your coin has any remnants of lamination striations which could indicat a split before strike.

John

[Sheila ruley]

It is a very dark coin. I can't see any lines or anything going across it. I was waiting if I should send it to someone on this forum to get a better look. I saw that the 1947 cent may have been made with other metals, but there is nothing about the 1946.

[mikediamond]

The most prosaic and most likely explanation is that it was struck on a planchet punched out of rolled-thin stock. Such errors can weigh as little as 1.4 grams.

[jfines69]

Nice find... A good sign you are a Lincolnaholic is when you can tell the sound of a lite cent when it hits the table

[Sheila ruley]

Yes, I can very easily hear the difference in the sounds. I have a very sensitive condition with my ears where I can hear higher pitches than most people. It runs in my family. High pitch sounds not only hurts my ears, but it also makes me hurt physically. It is rather inconvenient most of the time. But for this hobby, it is great. LOL!

[VAB2013]

That's a cool find Sheila! I bet it feels thin also. Sorry to hear about your sound sensitivity, that must be pretty rough in certain situations.

[GrumpyEd]

Yes, I can very easily hear the difference in the sounds.

Then you don't need a scale to tell which 1982 cents are copper or zinc.

Try this.... Flip any normal copper cent, do it by setting it on your thumb and flip it up in the air so it flips/spins fast and it makes a zing noise as it spins in the air. Try it a bunch, you'll see that as long as you give them a good flip (spinning as they fly) that all normal copper cents make that zing/ring noise as they spin. If you don't launch it well, try again because they all ring like that.

Then try it with any modern zinc cent. They never make any noise when you flip them, they're flat/silent. Try it a lot, you can never get a zinc cent to make that zing/ring.