1999-D Lincoln Cent

[CoinFaerie]

This is is a coin I pulled months ago and decided to take it out and ask because this here confused me. I have to learn the anatomy of a coin better because when I first started playing with change I thought it was all just a solid piece of metal. This example here changed it all ... thoughts? She’s pretty for a banged up hard life worker coin

[Maineman750]

This is just damage.....modern cents are made of zinc, coated with a thin layer of copper

[CoinFaerie]

Thank you I really appreciate your quick response .. she can now lay to rest in my book of cool learnings

[GrumpyEd]

Take any 83 or newer cent and rub it on cement and you'll see the zinc. If you keep it flat and rub long enough it will have a neat cameo look with a silver color rim and bust.

[CoinFaerie]

When I found this coin it was the layers that showed on the rim that perplexed me the most.. neat coin autopsy kinda but good coin lesson

[jfines69]

With all the zinc showing this coin is on its' way to a life of zinc rot From the Glossary -

Zinc Rot: Zinc corrodes easily when exposed to the environment. When the plating is split on a copper-plated zinc cent, the zinc will often corrode under the plating, and push up on it creating a bigger and bigger fissure. Due to the strength of many of the hand-punched mint marks on pre-1990 business strike cent dies, this is a very common place on Lincoln cents for the plating to split and for this corrosion to take place.


Here is another link to Error ref... Lots of good info there also - http://www.error-ref.com/?s=zinc+rot