1995 Question Partial Plating ?

[tnspro]

Anyone have an idea as to what happened to this one? Thanks in advance.

[kloccwork419]

Looks partially plated. Looks like the real deal to me. Nice looking find. They seem to of had an issue in 95. Alot of them in that year

[liveandievarieties]

Agreed, I've pulled examples from the 80s and 90s out of OBWs. Definitely a partially unplated planchet.

[tnspro]

Thanks for the help. Here are some more...all came from the same roll.

[liveandievarieties]

Wow. I've never pulled more than one at a time, that's one heck of a roll!

[coppercoins]

I think you might have run into some value there. Not sure since I don't do errors, but you might be able to count on more than $5 each for them.

[jcuve]

I have never heard of a batch being found. I would still want to hear Mike Diamond's view on these, just in case. If they get sold, better do it one at a time and not mention others being found. Genuine partially plated cents don't come up too often and are certainly $5-20 unless it is almost entirely unplated.

[tnspro]

I went to Wells Fargo today. Asked if I could buy some and the guy said he had $15. In the $15 I also found a 1943 and 1918 and some others mostly 1940's and 1950's (11 wheats in total). Glad I decided to stop in and get some! I welcome the opinions.

I forgot to add that I will have to check the others again. I might have missed a few.

[cimperialis]

It seems likely to me that if there are a bunch of these in the same roll of different dates and conditions, that the damage is artificial and not truly partially plated.

[coop]

What concerns me is the linear plating bubble through the center of the center bay? Seems like this should not be there on a partial plated planchet?

[coppy]

I would think that someone out there either accidently lost a roll, or got rid of some experiment.


Btw, I am not familiar with the plating process for cents(dipped into liquid?, electroplating?)... but, looking at the "U" of UNITED; is it possible for the bottom of "U" to be plated but not the field around it?
Ditto for the plating bubble that coop mentioned.

[Maineman750]

I moved the thread to Errors and revised the title so that Mike Diamond is more likely to chime in. It does look like you got somebody's stash.

[coppercoins]

Now that I consider my original response more carefully and read the responses of others, I am inclined to believe that there's something 'fishy' about finding so many of these together. And yes, the bubble in the middle of the one coin concerned me. If it wasn't plated in that spot there should be no bubble.

[jcuve]

Ugh, I should have went with my initial instinct that these were altered. I thought these were from a OBW roll. Not a customer bank roll. There is a plating blister as Coop notes through the bays.

[trails]

The answer is pretty simple. Look at this experiment.

1. Prepare the metal for copper-plating by cleaning it with toothpaste or soap and water. Dry it off on a paper towel.
2. Stir copper sulfate into some hot water in a beaker until no more will dissolve. Your solution should be dark blue. Let it cool.
3. Use one alligator clip to attach the copper electrode to the positive terminal of the battery (this is now the anode) and the other to attach the metal to the negative terminal (now called the cathode).
4. Partially suspend the metal in the solution by wrapping the wire lead loosely around a pencil and placing the pencil across the mouth of the beaker. The alligator clip should not touch the solution.
5. Place the copper strip (or copper cent) into the solution, making sure it doesn't touch the metal and the solution level is below the alligator clip. An electrical circuit has now formed and current is flowing.
6. Leave the circuit running for 20-30 minutes, or until you are happy with the amount of copper on the metal.

The copper atoms from the cent will migrate through the solution to the other metal.

In this case, because a copper plated zinc core cent was used, the copper atoms were stripped away from the cent leaving the zinc core exposed.

BJ Neff