5 pennys

[Guest]

I ask last week about 6 pennys that i knew notthing about got good feed back but could not understand if they where telling me about the coins or telling each other about the coins. I was looking at other Source and i seen where it said that there are pennys that don't get plated, and weight is 2.4 gr. My 1992 D penny is weight is 2.4 gr and to be unplated and i never clean it. But for my 5 other pennys i clean them in water and vineger and salt because i thought they where silver, Big miss up. That why they look new . If they are unplated 1982 , Do they a have value ? Also the weight get me 2.5 gr. There a cut out on one of the pennys 1984 D by we. Because the 1992 penny is 2.4 gr. and the other 5 pennys are 2.5 gr. 13/16 size ? All i want to know sould i have them look at by a shop ?

[jcuve]

Coin shops will not know how to handle possible error coins. Error specialists are around, such as Mike Diamond. A few others, such as myself or Bob Piazza, could do it.

Unplated Lincoln cents are very rare. They are about as hard to find as Lincoln struck on a dime planchet. Or in other words, one has very little chance of finding one. Ask guys on here who have searched a million coins over a multi-year period and not found an example, or maybe found just one. That doesn't mean one of your group is not real. Having used salt and vinegar on them might make verification impossible if the surface is damaged.

It is, conversely, very common to find Lincolns that have been plated with a silver metal, painted, coated with mercury or stripped of their plating. There maybe a different reason for each example, so asking why is useless. If the size is off, I would pretty much rule it out right now. Weight matters, but the surface characteristics must be considered.

Looking back at your thread, not one of them look right. They all appear stripped, and several seem to have heat damage.

[Peter]

Victor, in any thread the responders are talking to the original poster of the thread and to each other. We all learn from each other and there are times that a comment by one member will bring about a question or response to that answer as well as to the original poster. Sometimes there are very clear and simple answers to a question and other times they bring about a broader discussion.

[GrumpyEd]

I think the best reasoning that they aren't mint errors is that they were found in a backyard with a metal detector. I thought that in the post said you also found one that still had some of the plating coming off. Maybe someone played with them and dumped them there or something about the conditions and soil were taking off the plating. Many zinc cents found in dirt will have some copper blistering off, most will also have the zinc corroding away. Certain chemical (maybe chlorine?) or certain acids will dissolve copper but not dissolve zinc. Could it be that that backyard had the right stuff in the soil to take the plating off? It's done for science projects or experiments in science classes. Un-plated mint errors are rare, the odds of 6 rare mint errors being randomly lost and then found in one backyard are pretty much impossible unless millions of normal cents were found in the same backyard based on statistics. The only way it could happen is if someone sorted millions of cents to find them and threw them in that yard, that isn't likely. I'm saying it's possible but highly unlikely like finding 6 winning lotto tickets randomly in a backyard. If you want an opinion based only on the coins (not biased by how they were found) then you'd need to send one to an expert or a grading company and see their result.

That's my reasoning, I'm sure there can be other ideas or it might be wrong

Here's an example of a cent that has no plating. It was found in a tubed roll of 1982 zinc cents. It looks ok but I'm 99% sure it was done after the mint. Probably because in 1982 it was the first year of zinc cents and someone wanted to see if they could take the copper off to see the zinc. There are some flakes of copper still on it but it's almost all removed. I don't know how they did it.

[mustbebob]

Luster is one of the keys to verifying a genuine un-plated cent. Of course, there are other diagnostics but luster is a key.

[donvic]

I think the best reasoning that they aren't mint errors is that they were found in a backyard with a metal detector. I thought that in the post said you also found one that still had some of the plating coming off. Maybe someone played with them and dumped them there or something about the conditions and soil were taking off the plating. Many zinc cents found in dirt will have some copper blistering off, most will also have the zinc corroding away. Certain chemical (maybe chlorine?) or certain acids will dissolve copper but not dissolve zinc. Could it be that that backyard had the right stuff in the soil to take the plating off? It's done for science projects or experiments in science classes. Un-plated mint errors are rare, the odds of 6 rare mint errors being randomly lost and then found in one backyard are pretty much impossible unless millions of normal cents were found in the same backyard based on statistics. The only way it could happen is if someone sorted millions of cents to find them and threw them in that yard, that isn't likely. I'm saying it's possible but highly unlikely like finding 6 winning lotto tickets randomly in a backyard. If you want an opinion based only on the coins (not biased by how they were found) then you'd need to send one to an expert or a grading company and see their result.

That's my reasoning, I'm sure there can be other ideas or it might be wrong

Here's an example of a cent that has no plating. It was found in a tubed roll of 1982 zinc cents. It looks ok but I'm 99% sure it was done after the mint. Probably because in 1982 it was the first year of zinc cents and someone wanted to see if they could take the copper off to see the zinc. There are some flakes of copper still on it but it's almost all removed. I don't know how they did it.

I only found 4 in the back yard the other 2 like the 1992 D got at a store and the one thats hard to see . The 1992 D dose not look like the other 4 . and the one that still have plating is not in a picture i post it's just a penny i found from store and ask about, Thank you for your time.

[jcuve]

Link: http://error-ref.com/unplated-cents.html

My photos of a genuine unplated:

[GrumpyEd]

Wow, that unplated 84 has some nice surfaces!
Zinc is so reactive, I wonder how these hold up over time.

[mustbebob]

Jason's photos of his unplated cent shows perfectly about the luster I had made mention of. It is a beautiful coin.

[donvic]

Jason's photos of his unplated cent shows perfectly about the luster I had made mention of. It is a beautiful coin.

but i clean 4 of them would had lose luster and 1 of the coins have the lines.

[Maineman750]

but i clean 4 of them would had lose luster and 1 of the coins have the lines.

Then you've ruined them already...besides, the chance of finding one is next to nothing,do you really believe you found 5 ? And in the ground to boot ?

[mustbebob]

but i clean 4 of them would had lose luster and 1 of the coins have the lines.

The 'lines' have nothing to do with the luster. The luster is the 'cartwheel effect' you see on Jason's 1st and 4th photos.

As Roger has mentioned, if you cleaned the coins, they are effectively ruined. You can not regain luster by cleaning either. Once again, this is an area where actually seeing one (a genuine unplated cent), or had the chance to inspect one close up would do wonders for understanding the nuances of the error.

If any coin is found in the dirt, the environmental factors would quickly ruin the coins. I would tend to listen to what the folks here have told you. This is all good, sound opinions and advice.